Systems and methods for using dns records to provide targeted marketing services

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods can include collecting addressability information about users accessing a service provider&#39;s IP-based network communication services, collecting information sufficient to identify when the user is accessing the service provider&#39;s IP-based network communication services, collecting the domain names accessed by the user and using the collected information to associate the user with certain marketing content. The systems and methods can further include sending the marketing content to the user through various distribution channels by using the addressability information. The systems and methods can further include recording the collected information over time to refine the ability or predict the user&#39;s receptiveness to certain marketing content so as to improve the effectiveness of TMS.

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No.60/917,553 filed May 11, 2007, herein incorporated by reference in itsentirety.

The contents of the following applications, filed concurrently herewith,are incorporated by reference in their entirety: U.S. Non-ProvisionalPatent App. No.: ______, Attorney Docket No.: ______, titled “Systemsand Methods for Using IP Transport Records to Provide Targeted MarketingServices,” U.S. Non-Provisional Patent App. No.: ______, Attorney DocketNo.: ______, titled “Systems and Methods for Using Voice ServicesRecords to Provide Targeted Marketing Services,” U.S. Non-ProvisionalPatent App. No.: ______, Attorney Docket No.: ______, titled “Systemsand Methods for Using Video Services Records to Provide TargetedMarketing Services” and U.S. Non-Provisional Patent App. No.: ______,Attorney Docket No.: ______, titled “Systems and Methods for UsingValue-Added Services Records to Provide Targeted Marketing Services.”

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Targeted marketing aims to simultaneously reduce the cost of and improvethe response to marketing campaigns by delivering marketing content torecipients who are most likely to be receptive to that content. Cost isreduced by limiting the distribution of the content; response isimproved by delivering the content to those recipients most likely torespond.

Common examples of targeted marketing include the following: direct-mailmarketing, such as mail order catalog distribution, wherein marketingcontent is mailed to households whose members belong to a relevantaffinity group; newsletter distribution to those individuals who haveexpressed an explicit interest in receiving the newsletter; advertisinginserted into the response pages of online search engines, such asGoogle™ and Yahoo™ search, wherein the recipients are selected based onthe keywords they enter on the search page; and context-basedadvertisement insertion, such as banner advertisements placed on awebsite, wherein the website is selected based on knowledge, or implicitassumption, that individuals in a target group are more likely to visitthat website than other websites.

Entities that employ targeted marketing face two challenges: 1)cost-effectiveness in identifying the individuals or groups most likelyto be differentially more receptive to the marketing content; and 2)identifying the location where the marketing content should be sent toreach those individuals or groups. Responding to those challengesrequires the acquisition and processing of information associated withreceptiveness and addressability.

The convergence of communications, information, and entertainmentservices industries has led to the emergence of service providers thatprovide multiple services, including Internet access, voice services,and video entertainment services among others. Moreover, these serviceproviders are delivering the services over a converged servicesinfrastructure, which, at its core, is based on Internet Protocol (IP)networking technologies. This extensive services infrastructure consistsof systems, information and processes needed to deliver a wide range ofinformation, entertainment and communications services to millions ofusers. This infrastructure also represents a potentially valuable set ofresources on which to build and operate a wide range of powerfulmarketing services.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to facilitate a fuller understanding of the exemplaryembodiments, reference is now made to the appended drawings, in whichlike reference characters are used to indicate like elements. Thesedrawings should not be construed as limiting, but are intended to beexemplary only.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system for delivering IP-basedservices, according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a method for acquiring access to and usingIP-based services, according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a system for providing targetedmarketing services, according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a method for providing targeted marketingservices, according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing relationships between information toenable associating IP address-keyed receptiveness information to users,according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a method for implementing the information anddecision processing functions of the marketing information processingmodule, according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of a method for opportunistic distribution ofmarketing content, according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of a method for hybrid distribution of marketingcontent, according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a service provider-based targetedmarketing services system, according to an exemplary embodiment; and

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a method for providing service provider-basedtargeted marketing services, according to an exemplary embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The following description is intended to convey a thorough understandingof the embodiments described by providing a number of specificembodiments and details involving using Domain Name System (DNS) recordsto identify user interests, and using those user interests to sendmarketing content to the user. It should be appreciated, however, thatthese specific embodiments and details are exemplary only.

As used herein, the term “marketing content” is interpreted broadly toinclude any type of information that a service provider or a third partymay elect to send to a user. Thus, marketing content can include, but isnot limited to, offers for goods or services, requests for charitabledonations, requests for information, general information not associatedwith an offer or request, etc.

As used herein, the term “targeted marketing services (TMS)” isinterpreted broadly to include marketing activity whereby steps aretaken to deliver marketing content to a particular group of individuals,the members of which are believed to be more receptive to the contentthan other individuals.

As used herein, the term “user” is interpreted broadly to include anyindividual or collection of individuals using at least one serviceprovided by a service provider. A user includes, but is not limited to,an individual, a household that interacts with a service provider usinga single set of identifying data, a business entity that interacts witha service provider using a single set of identifying data, etc.

As used herein, the term “IP-enabled device” is interpreted broadly toinclude any device capable of communicating with other devices across anIP-based network. IP-enabled devices include, but are not limited to,personal computers (PCs), personal digital assistants (PDAs), smartphones, cellular telephones, set-top boxes, etc.

The description below describes models at an introductory and abstractlevel of the systems and methods used by service providers to deliverIP-based services. These systems and methods are well-known in the art.The models are intended only to provide sufficient background for athorough understanding of the embodiments described.

The description below describes modules that may include one or moreservers, databases, subsystems and other components. As used herein, theterm “module” may be understood to refer to software, firmware,hardware, and/or various combinations thereof. The modules areexemplary. The modules may be combined, integrated, separated, and/orduplicated to support various applications and may be centralized ordistributed. A function described herein as being performed at aparticular module may be performed at one or more other modules and/orby one or more other devices instead of or in addition to the functionperformed at the particular module. The modules may be implementedacross multiple devices and/or other components local or remote to oneanother. The devices and components that comprise one module may or maynot be distinct from the devices and components that comprise othermodules.

The technology infrastructure used by service providers to deliverIP-based services can be extensive. The technology can consist of thesystems, information and processes needed to deliver a wide range ofinformation, entertainment and communications services to millions ofusers.

From a marketing services perspective, this infrastructure also canrepresent a potentially valuable set of resources on which to build andoperate a wide range of powerful marketing services. Service providerinfrastructure resources, in existing or slightly modified form, can beused for at least two important purposes in a marketing servicescontext: 1) as a source of marketing information, including bothreceptiveness information, which relates to a user's receptiveness toparticular marketing content, and addressability information, whichrelates to a user's physical or virtual location for sending marketingcontent; and 2) as a distribution channel for sending marketing contentto the user.

The IP-based services provided by service providers can include IPaccess service. IP access service can allow a user to obtain access toone or more public and/or private IP networks, including but not limitedto, the Internet. As part of this service, the user can couple anIP-enabled device to the service provider's access infrastructure. Theservice provider can provide transport service through at least one ofits networks and/or interconnection services to other networks as neededto deliver packets across other IP networks. This IP access service canbe the basis for a wide range of IP-based applications and services,including, but not limited to, web browsing, file sharing, multimediastreaming, electronic messaging, etc.

Referring to FIG. 1, a schematic diagram of a system for deliveringIP-based services, according to an exemplary embodiment, is illustrated.System 20 can comprise a user 30, a user interface module 32, a serviceprovider 40 and an external service module 70.

The user 30 can be an individual or group that uses IP-based servicesprovided by and through the service provider 40. The user 30 can beassociated with a service provider service subscription, in which casethe user 30 can be referred to as a subscriber and can have an accountwith the service provider 40. The user 30 can be an individual, as wherea service is provided to a single person, or a group, as where a serviceis provided to multiple individuals, e.g., residential broadband dataservice provided to a family, enterprise data services provided toemployees of a company, etc.

The user interface module 32 can provide a means for the user 30 tocouple at least one input and/or output device to the service provider'sinfrastructure via an IP-enabled communications link and to interactwith IP-based services via the coupled device(s). The systems andmethods by which IP connectivity can be established and maintained canvary widely and are well known in the art.

Where the user interface module 32 implements at least one network, suchas a residential home network, the user interface module 32 can providelocal networking functions, including, but not limited to, local addressassignment, host configuration, network address translation, securityand access control. The transmission medium used by the user interfacemodule 32 to communicate internally and with components of the serviceprovider's infrastructure can be based on wireline technologies,wireless technologies, or a combination of both.

The user interface module 32 can comprise a wide range of devices,software, applications, equipment and cabling including, but not limitedto, PCs, laptops, IP-enabled mobile devices (handheld computers,cellular telephones), telephones, cameras, microphones, displays,televisions, set-top-boxes, home-networking equipment (routers,switches, modems) browsers, electronic games, office automationapplication software, file transfer application software, etc. Althoughvaried, these components are well known in the art.

The service provider 40 can provide at least one IP-based service to atleast one user 30. The at least one IP-based service provided by theservice provider 40 can include, but is not limited to, web-browsing,e-mail, electronic messaging, file-transfer, IP-based voice services,IP-based multimedia services, etc.

The service provider 40 can include an IP packet transport module 42.The IP packet transport module 42 can route and forward IP packets toand from the user interface module 32. The IP packet transport module 42can enforce certain transport service-level agreements. The IP packetscan originate at the user interface module 32 and be destined foranother service provider module or the external service module 70. TheIP packets can originate at the service provider 40 or the externalservice module 70 and be destined for the user interface module 32. Allcommunications between the user interface module 32 and other serviceprovider modules and/or the external service module 70 can be through IPpackets routed and forwarded through the IP packet transport module 42.

The IP packet transport module 42 can comprise a wide range of devices,software, applications, equipment and cabling including, but not limitedto, interconnected routers and switches, optical and electrical wiring,wireless transmitters and receivers, etc. The IP packet transport module42 can employ a wide range of communication protocols and technologiesincluding, but not limited to, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM),Ethernet, Frame-relay, multi-protocol label switching (MPLS), L2TP,IPSec, point-to-point protocol (PPP), SONET, EV-DO, WiMax, etc. The IPpacket transport module 42 also can employ standard Internet protocolsto operate the network, including, but not limited to, IP, user datagramprotocol (UDP), transmission control protocol/internet protocol(TCP/IP), ICMP, OSPF, ISIS, RIP, SNMP, etc. The components,communication protocols and Internet protocols are well known in theart.

The information maintained by the IP packet transport module 42 caninclude information for establishing and maintaining networkconnectivity between modules, routing packets based on destinationaddress and other service-related parameters, monitoring performance,measuring usage, etc. The IP packet transport module 42 can inspect anIP packet to obtain data to forward the IP packet to its destination.The IP packet transport module 42 also can incorporate devices, e.g.,deep packet inspection devices, to inspect an IP packet for additionaldata, record that data and/or act on the IP packet as it traverses theIP packet transport module 42.

The service provider 40 can include a user account module 44. The useraccount module 44 can manage the information related to a user's accountwith the service provider 40 and associated service provisioninginformation. The user 30 can interact with the user account module 44when the user 30 wants to add, modify or delete services or properties,e.g., contact information, billing information, etc., associated withthe user's account. The user 30 can interact with the user accountmodule 44 through the user interface module 32, for example, through acustomer service website operated by the service provider 40 and/orthrough non-IP-based systems, e.g., telephone, mail, face-to-facecontact with a service provider representative, etc.

The user account module 44 can consist of numerous distributed computingsystems. The user account module 44 can comprise a wide variety ofphysical hardware, software and logical systems including, but notlimited to, databases, web servers, client-server systems, elementmanagement and provisioning systems, subscriber management systems,order processing systems, customer call centers, automated voiceresponse systems, etc. The underlying systems and methods to implementthe user account module 44 are well known in the art.

The user account module 44 can interact with other service providermodules as needed to configure infrastructure in order to provideservice. For example, the user 30 can establish a new DSL broadband useraccount with the service provider 40. The user account module 44 caninteract with elements of the service provider's access and edgenetworks, such as digital subscriber line access multiplexers (DSLAMs),ATM switches, edge/gateway routers, etc. This interaction can be toprovision a logical connection, e.g., ATM virtual circuit, Ethernetvirtual local area network (VLAN), etc. with the appropriate serviceparameters from the subscribers home to a router at the edge of theservice provider's network. This provisioning can be referred to asstatic because it is managed by the user account module 44 when the user30 establishes service and can remain unchanged for an extended periodof time.

The user account module 44 can contain extensive information, including,but not limited to, the following: 1) a unique user identificationnumber; 2) billing information, such as a) a billing address, b) creditcard and/or bank information, c) billing status, d) credit history,etc.; 3) contact information, such as a) at least one address inaddition to the billing address, b) at least one telephone number, c) atleast one e-mail address, etc.; 4) service information, such as a) atleast one list of authorized services, b) service agreements, associatedrates and charging methods, c) authentication and authorizationcredentials, e.g., user identifiers (IDs), account IDs, passwords,public key certificates, device IDs (set-top box IDs, subscriberidentity module (SIM) card IDs, device media access control (MAC)addresses) d) service-specific parameters, e.g., data transportparameters (rate limits, maximum burst size, minimum guaranteed rates),at least one instant messaging (IM) identity, e-mail and/or voicemailmailbox IDs, access codes, storage quotas, content subscriptions, etc.;and 5) service provisioning information, such as a) geographic ornetwork location of the user interface module 32, b) access linkinformation, e.g., access link ID like ATM virtual circuit ID or VLANIDs, lists of access network elements traversed by an access link, thename of the broadband remote access server (BRAS) device that terminatesthe access link, the interface identifier on the BRAS device thatterminates the access link, etc.

The service provider 40 can include a service attachment module 46. Theservice attachment module 46 can dynamically exchange serviceprovisioning and configuration information with the user interfacemodule 32. Dynamic provisioning and configuration can be performed toallow the service provider 40 to allocate a limited resource, such as apublic IP address, to the user 30 while the service associated with thatresource is in use. Dynamic provisioning and configuration also can beperformed because the information needed for configuration or thedevices to be configured are known to the service provider 40 at thetime when service usage is to begin. For example, the specific devicethat the user 30 employs to access a service can be unknown to theservice provider 40 until the user 30 initiates use of the service. Theservice attachment module 46 also can interact with other serviceprovider modules to manage the configuration of services provided by theservice provider 40. The systems and methods used to implement theservice attachment module 46 can vary by service but are well known inthe art.

The service attachment module 46 can include a network attachment module48. The network attachment module 48 can coordinate the dynamicprovisioning and configuration associated with providing the user 30with IP-transport services. The dynamic provisioning and configurationassociated with providing IP-transport services can occur before thedynamic configuration associated with higher-level services, such asvoice and video, because the dynamic configuration associated withhigher-level services can use the IP-access provided by the IP-transportservices. Thus, the network attachment module 48 can implement the firststep in a multi-step dynamic service bootstrapping process.

The network attachment module 48 can manage the dynamic assignment ofpublic IP addresses to the user interface module 32 in support ofIP-packet transport functions for IP-access service. The networkattachment module 48 can communicate configuration information to theuser interface module 32 in support of higher-level services. Theinformation managed and communicated can include IP addresses for DNSservers, session initiation protocol (SIP) proxies for voice services,Interactive Program Guides (IPGs) for video services, etc.

The network attachment module 48 can comprise BRAS routers, DHCPservers, RADIUS clients and servers, databases, transport policymanagement systems, etc. The network attachment module 48 can usemultiple protocols, including, but not limited to, PPP, point-to-pointprotocol over ethernet (PPPoE), dynamic host configuration protocol(DHCP), remote authentication dial-in user service (RADIUS), common openpolicy service (COPS), etc.

The service provider 40 can include a domain name resolution module 50.The domain name resolution module 50 can provide domain name resolutionservices via the DNS. When two or more IP-enabled end systems, known ashosts, communicate across an IP network, the packets exchanged betweenthe hosts can be delivered across the network based on a unique numericidentifier, known as an IP address. Each packet can contain a source IPaddress, which can identify the host that sent the packet, and at leastone destination IP address, which can identify at least one host thatthe packet can be sent to. The DNS can store and associate many types ofinformation with domain names, which can be alphanumeric strings,typically human legible, used to identify a host on an IP-based network.In particular, the DNS can associate a domain name with an IP address.Thus, the DNS can act as a directory service, through which domain namescan be translated into IP addresses, a process referred to as domainname resolution. The DNS can be implemented as ahierarchically-organized, globally-distributed system. The systems andmethods used to implement the DNS are well known in the art.

The use of domain names and the DNS can be ubiquitous in IP-basednetworks. For example, World Wide Web uniform resource locators (URLs)can contain the domain name of the host that stores the resourceassociated with the URL. In the URL“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_system#History_of_the_DNS,”the string fragment “en.wikipedia.org” can be the domain name of thehost that stores the web page for the wikipedia entry that describes theDNS. Domain names and the DNS also can be used in other IP-basedservices.

The domain name resolution module 50 can participate in a DNS and beused for domain name resolution. To perform domain name resolution, thedomain name resolution module 50 can interact with the user interfacemodule 32. For example, software in a user's PC, known as a resolver,can send a request to the domain name resolution module 50 for thetranslation of a domain name, e.g., www.google.com, to the domain name'sassociated IP address. The domain name resolution module 50 can processthe request at a DNS server that can perform a local directory look-upor can query other DNS servers in the service-provider's network or inother networks. Once the domain name resolution module 50 identifies theassociated IP address, e.g., 64.233.161.99, the domain name resolutionmodule 50 can send the associated IP address back to the user's PC. Oncethe PC receives the IP address, the PC can cache the IP address for aperiod of time based on the use of a time-to-live parameter. Thiscaching can reduce the rate and volume of domain name resolutionrequests to the domain name resolution module 50 by enabling the PC touse the resolved IP address for a period of time.

The service provider 40 can include an other services module 52. Theother services module 52 can manage the delivery of other servicesprovided by the service provider 40 but not yet identified. Theseservices can include, but are not limited to, video services, voiceservices, online gaming services, download services, restricted contentservices, security services (virus detection, intrusion detection,parental controls), storage services, personal media managementservices, etc. Management of the delivery of these services can involveuser identification, authentication and service authorization, servicedelivery, performance management and usage tracking. The other servicesmodule 52 can interact with the user interface module 32.

Although the systems associated with the other services module 52 canvary by service, the systems can include, but are not limited to,servers, databases, storage systems, monitoring systems, etc. Althoughthe methods associated with the other services module 52 also can varyby service, the methods can include, but are not limited to, commonIP-based distributed systems and application technologies such as TCP,UDP, hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), SOAP, file transfer protocol(FTP), SIP, real-time streaming protocol (RTSP), etc. The systems andmethods associated with the other services module 52 are well known inthe art.

Although the information managed and maintained by the other servicesmodule 52 can vary by service, the information can include, but is notlimited to, user identity, authentication, service authorization,service delivery state, resource consumption, service usage, etc.

The external service module 70 can be an information, entertainment,communications, etc., service, which may or may not be commercial innature, provided to the user 30 as accessed through the service provider40, though the external service module 70 need not be associated withthe service provider 40. The user 30 can interact with the externalservice module 70 through the user interface module 32 and the IP packettransport module 42. The external service module 70 can communicatedirectly with the IP packet transport module 42, as with, for example,direct network connection or direct network peering, or can communicateindirectly through one or more intermediary IP-based networks. Thecommunication path between the user 30 and the external service module70 can include public and/or private IP-based networks and can includecommunications across non-IP based communication channels, such as thepublic switched telephone network (PSTN). The transmission mediumbetween the user 30 and the external service module 70 can includewireline technologies, wireless technologies or a combination of both.

The systems comprising the external service module 70 can include, butare not limited to, computers, databases, routers, switches, firewalls,storage devices, web servers, email servers, file servers, mediaservers, application servers, voice and multimedia gateways, mediamixers and trans-coders, conferencing systems, etc. The systems andmethods associated with the external service module 70, though widelyvaried, are well known in the art.

Referring to FIG. 2, a flowchart of a method for acquiring access to andusing IP-based services, according to an exemplary embodiment, isillustrated. In block 110, the user 30 can interact with the serviceprovider 40 to sign-up for at least one service and establish a useraccount. The user 30 can interact with the service provider 40 throughthe user interface module 32, for example, through a customer servicewebsite operated by the service provider 40 and/or through non-IP-basedsystems, e.g., telephone, mail, face-to-face contact with a serviceprovider representative, etc. The service provider 40 can collect user30 and service information. The user 30 and/or the service provider 40can configure hardware and software so the service can be delivered,which can include, at a minimum, establishing basic IP transportservice.

For example, the user 30 can call the service provider 40 to requesthigh-speed data service, voice over internet protocol (VoIP) serviceand/or IP-based video service. The service provider 40 can collectcontact and billing information from the user 30, as well as informationfor provisioning the service, such as the address where service will beprovided. The service provider 40 can provide the user 30 with equipmentfor using the service, such as a router, VoIP-enabled telephones,set-top boxes, etc. The service provider 40 and/or the user 30 canconfigure the equipment for use. The service provider 40 can configurethe service provider's infrastructure to provide the service. Forexample, the service provider 40 can provision access links to theuser's premises, configure account and service information in servicedelivery subsystems, etc. Method 100 then can proceed to block 120.

In block 120, the user 30 can establish a connection to the serviceprovider's infrastructure via an IP-enabled communications link. Thenetwork attachment module 48 can perform dynamic service configurationto establish basic IP connectivity and basic service-level provisioningfor the elements associated with the user interface module 32. Forexample, the network attachment module 48 can dynamically assign an IPaddress to an element of the user interface module 32, such as a homerouter. The service attachment module 46 can dynamically configure otherIP-service information, including, but not limited to, addresses for DNSservers, SIP proxies, HTTP proxies, bootstrapping servers for videoservices, etc.

For example, the user 30 can couple a home router to a digitalsubscriber line (DSL) network, turn the router on and configure therouter. The home router can signal the service provider's network toestablish connectivity using a protocol, such as PPP, PPPoE, DHCP, etc.The service attachment module 46 can perform user authentication andauthorization. The network attachment module 48 can assign a dynamic IPaddress to the home router, which the IP-enabled network can use toidentify the host associated with the user 30. At the completion of theattachment process, the user interface module 32 can have an IP address,functioning IP connectivity to the IP packet transport module 42 andessential configuration for other services. Method 100 then can proceedto block 130.

In block 130, the user 30 can establish use of IP transport services tocommunicate with other IP-enabled devices reachable through the serviceprovider's infrastructure. This capability can provide the user 30 withthe ability to send IP packets to other IP addresses and to receive IPpackets from other IP addresses. Method 100 then can proceed to block140.

In block 140, the user 30 can establish use of domain name resolutionservices to access other services. Many application-level, IP-basedservices depend upon the DNS to abstract away the details of numeric IPaddresses and use logical domain names instead. These applications canuse DNS as a part of the application-level service. For example, whenusing a web-based application, such as browsing the Internet, the URLsused by the user 30 to reach a given website can be expressed, not interms of numeric IP addresses, but rather with domain names. The same istrue for the vast majority of other Internet-based applications, such ase-mail, ftp, telnet, IP-based voice and video services, etc. Method 100then can proceed to block 150.

In block 150, the user 30 can use application-level services, such asweb-browsing, e-mail, file-transfer, voice services, video services,etc. All of the communication traffic between the user 30 and theservice can use IP transport services. Some of the traffic between theuser 30 and the service also can use domain name resolution services.Method 100 then can proceed to block 160.

In block 160, the user 30 can functionally detach from the serviceprovider's IP network. This detachment can be intentional, as where theuser 30 deliberately shuts down an element of the user interface module32, or unintentional, as where a power disruption shuts down the userinterface module 32. As a result, the user interface module 32 can loseIP connectivity to the service provider's network elements, and theservice provider 40 can recover for future use any dynamic resourcesallocated to the user 30 during block 120.

For example, if the network attachment module 48 previously had assigneda dynamic IP address to the user's home router, that IP address can bedeallocated and disassociated from that user's home router. The serviceprovider 40 can then assign the IP address to a different user 30.

The period in time during which a specific user 30 is associated with aspecific IP address can be the user's IP access session. An IP accesssession can begin when the service provider 40 allocates an IP addressto a specific user 30 and can end when the service provider 40deallocates that IP address from that user 30.

An IP access session can begin via either static or dynamic processes.For example, the user's IP address can be statically allocated when theuser 30 establishes an account with the service provider 40 in block110, in which case the IP access session begins when the user 30establishes the account and can last as long as the user 30 maintainsthe account with the service provider 40. The user's IP address can bedynamically allocated by the network attachment module 48 in block 120,in which case the IP access session can begin when the IP address isallocated and can end when the IP address is deallocated in block 160.Where the IP address is dynamically allocated, the user 30 can havemultiple IP access sessions during the time that the user 30 maintainsan account with the service provider 40. Each IP access session caninvolve a different IP address allocated by the network attachmentmodule 48. The user 30 can have multiple IP access sessions at the sametime if, for example, the user 30 has a user interface module 32 thatcan establish multiple simultaneous IP connections to the IP packettransport module 42.

For example, the user 30 can establish DSL broadband service with theservice provider 40, with the user 30 obtaining, installing andconfiguring any equipment and the service provider 40 performing anyinitial service configuration. The user 30 can turn on the user's DSLmodem and/or home router. The home router can negotiate connectivity andhost configuration parameters with the service attachment module 46,using DHCP, for example. This negotiation can include a request for andsubsequent assignment of an IP address to the home router. Once thisnegotiation has been completed, the IP access session can begin.

The IP access session can last as long as the service provider 40associates the assigned IP address to the user's home router. Thisassociation can end for any number of reasons. For example, where thehome router is using DHCP for network configuration, the association canend if the DHCP lease period for the address expires before the homerouter renews it, in which case the home router can lose connectivity tothe service provider 40, and the IP access session can end. Returning toFIG. 2, after the user 30 functionally detaches from the serviceprovider's network, Method 100 then can proceed back to block 110.

In block 110, the user 30 can reestablish the connection to the serviceprovider's infrastructure via an IP-enabled communications link. Forexample, if the detachment in block 160 was unintentional, the user 30can resolve any problems that resulted in the detachment and reestablishthe connection. If the detachment in block 160 was intentional, the user30 can reestablish the connection at the user's convenience. When theuser 30 reattaches to the network and receives a new, or even the same,IP address, a new IP access session can begin. The concept of an IPaccess session can apply to wireless-based IP access services, as wellas to wireline-based services.

A variety of information can be associated with an IP access session,either directly or indirectly. IP access session information can includethe IP address assigned to the user 30 by the service provider 40, bywhich the user 30 can be reachable by other hosts on the network. IPaccess session information can include an IP access session ID, a uniqueidentifier assigned to the IP access session by the service provider 40.The IP access session ID can be used by the service provider 40 forinternal data management purposes as a key for retrieving informationassociated with the IP access session. IP access session information caninclude network access information. Network access information canidentify the network access facilities being used during the IP accesssession. Network access information can include, for example, anidentifier for the IP access session network connection used to reachthe user 30 and the name of the BRAS on which the access connection isterminated. IP access session information can include IP access sessionlifecycle information. This IP access session lifecycle information caninclude, but is not limited to, the session start time, the sessionstate, e.g., active/ongoing or inactive/terminated and, if terminated,the session stop time.

IP access session information can include user identity information.User identity information can be information that either directly orindirectly identifies the user. For example, direct identificationinformation can include a unique user ID assigned to the user 30 by theservice provider 40 at the time that service is established and providedby the user 30 to establish a connection to the service provider'sinfrastructure, e.g., user ID authentication credentials passed duringPPP negotiation. Indirect identification information can include thenetwork access information previously described, e.g., the user's IPaccess session network connection identifier and terminating BRAS. Usingthe network access information, the user's identity can be obtained byassociating the information with information stored in other databasesmanaged by the service provider 40, e.g., network provisioningdatabases.

Information that can be indirectly linked with an IP access session canbe separated into two classes: 1) information that can be linked to anIP access session via knowledge of the user's identity and 2)information that can be linked to an IP access session via knowledge ofthe IP address associated with the session. Examples of user identitylinked information can include, but is not limited to, user contactinformation, e.g., mailing address, telephone number, e-mail address,etc., demographic information, service subscription information, etc.Examples of IP address-linked information can include, but is notlimited to, information related to specific patterns of service usagecollected based on IP address during the IP access session. Theseclasses of information linked indirectly with an IP access session can,in turn, be linked with each other through their association with the IPaccess session. Thus, it is possible, in principle, to use an IP accesssession to associate information keyed based on an IP address to aspecific user 30. This association, once made and recorded, can persistbeyond the duration of the IP access session.

IP access session information can reside in multiple locationsthroughout the service provider's infrastructure. Direct information,such as the IP access session identifier, allocated IP address, networkaccess information and user information can reside within the serviceattachment module 46. The service provider 40 can elect to extend thefunction of the service attachment module 46 to dynamically collect,organize and manage this information as IP access sessions come and goover time. User identity linked information can reside in the useraccount module 44, including in user account and/or user serviceconfiguration databases. User identity linked information also canreside in modules that implement individual services, including, but notlimited to, the IP packet transport module 42 and the other servicesmodule 52. IP address linked information can reside in the IP-basedservice modules, including, but not limited to, the IP packet transportmodule 42, the domain name resolution module 50 and the other servicesmodule 52.

Based on this description of an IP access session and the informationassociated therewith, certain properties of an IP access session can beidentified. For each IP access session, the user 30 can be associateduniquely with an IP address. This property can have two importantimplications: 1) for each IP access session, the IP address can be usedto identify the user 30 and can be used to communicate with the user 30for the duration of the IP access session; and 2) any informationcollected during the IP access session concerning the use of servicesand based on the IP address can be associated with the user 30. Thus,any IP service usage that reveals relevant marketing information aboutthe user 30 can be collected during the IP access session and used laterin that session to send marketing content addressed to the IP accesssession IP address over an IP-based communication channel or processedand associated with the user 30 for subsequent use.

An IP access session can persist for a long time, e.g., days, weeks,months or even years. This property can be especially true for IP accesssessions based on wired network connections because such connections canbe established and maintained indefinitely. Wireless IP accessconnections, and the associated IP address assignments, can be moretransient due to mobility issues and device power constraints. An IPaccess session can last longer than the online session of the user 30.This situation can be especially true where the user accesses IP-basedservices through a device, e.g., a PC, coupled to a home network.Although the user 30 can shutdown the PC after a period of usage, the IPaccess session can persist as long as the user's home router remainspowered and coupled to the network. Thus, when the user 30 turns on theoriginal PC, or some other device, such as a set-top box, that cancouple to the home network, for another period of usage, that subsequentperiod of usage can continue to be associated with the same IP accesssession as the earlier period of usage. This situation can exist becausethe IP access session can be associated with the IP address provided andassigned to the user's home router by the service provider 40. Althoughthe user's home network can support a variety of IP hosts over anextended period of time using network address translation (NAT) andother private networking techniques, the service provider 40 addresseseach of the hosts via the IP address assigned to the home router.Enterprise networks can function similarly.

An IP access session can involve multiple platforms. The user interfacemodule 32 can comprise a private network that contains multipleIP-enabled devices, e.g., PCs, laptops, set-top boxes, etc., allaccessed through a single IP connection managed by a home-router. Again,the service provider 40 can address each of the devices through a singleIP address assigned to the home router. Thus, a single IP access sessioncan involve multiple devices either over time or at about the same time.

An IP access session can be treated anonymously or non-anonymously. Asystem or service can address the user 30 through the IP addressassociated with the IP access session without determining the user'sidentity. On the other hand, the service provider 40 can combineinformation associated with the IP access-session, such as a user ID,with other information in its system, such as information in a customeraccount database, to determine the user's identity.

An IP access session can be tracked. The service provider'sinfrastructure can contain elements in the service attachment module 46for dynamic assignment of IP addresses and/or the user account module 44for static assignment of IP addresses that can be well-suited fortracking when an IP access session begins and ends. These elements cantrack and manage information about the lifecycle of each IP accesssession.

Referring to FIG. 3, a schematic diagram of a system for providingtargeted marketing services, according to an exemplary embodiment, isillustrated. System 200 can comprise at least one information sourcemodule 210, a marketing information management module 212, a marketinginformation processing module 214, a distribution channel module 216 anda performance analysis module 218.

The information source module 210 can collect information and forwardthat information to the marketing information processing module 214. Theinformation source module 210 also can process the information beforeforwarding.

The information collected by the information source module 210 can bereceptiveness information and/or addressability information.Receptiveness information can be information that pertains to anindividual's or a group's potential receptiveness to marketing content,e.g., a propensity to purchase a product. Receptiveness information cancome from a wide variety of sources and can be of varying types. Forexample, receptiveness information can include demographic information,e.g., race, age, gender, income, education, etc. Receptivenessinformation can include geographic information, e.g., current location,location of residence, country, state, town, zip code, etc.Receptiveness information can include membership information, e.g.,current or past memberships in social, professional, religious and/orother organizations. Receptiveness information can include purchasingbehavior, e.g., records of past purchases, such as grocery storepurchases, recent shopping patterns, records of product research, etc.Receptiveness information can include personal interest information,e.g., newsletter and magazine subscriptions, participation inactivities, frequent visits to certain websites, etc. Receptivenessinformation can include information that can be considered personal.

The nature of receptiveness information can range from generic, e.g.,demographic or interest profile information, to marketing campaignspecific, e.g., knowledge of a former customer. Regardless of the natureof the information, receptiveness information relevance, in terms ofpredicting receptiveness to marketing content, can be measured withrespect to that marketing content. Individual pieces of receptivenessinformation can be combined and processed in various ways to increasethe predictive capability of the aggregated information over that of theindividual pieces.

Addressability information can be information used to send marketingcontent to an individual or a group. Like receptiveness information,addressability information can come from a wide variety of sources andcan be of varying types. For example, addressability information caninclude a mailing address that can be used to send marketing contentthrough the U.S. postal service or a private courier. Addressabilityinformation can include a telephone number that can be used to sendmarketing content via telephone, e.g., telemarketing. Addressabilityinformation can include an e-mail address that can be used to sendmarketing content via electronic mail. Addressability information caninclude an HTTP cookie that can be used to recognize the user 30 at afuture point in time, whereupon the web content delivered to the user 30can be customized to send marketing content, e.g., a targetedadvertisement. Addressability information can include an IP addressthat, similar to the HTTP cookie, can be used to recognize and interactwith the user 30 at a future point in time within the duration of an IPaccess session, whereupon the IP service being used can be modified tosend marketing content.

Addressability information can be considered personally identifiableinformation (PII), which can be considered non-anonymous, if, given theinformation, the identity of the individual or group associated with theinformation can be identified either directly from the informationitself or when easily combined with other publicly availableinformation. Examples of addressability information that can beconsidered PII can include, but are not limited to, full name, postaladdress, telephone number and e-mail address. Examples of addressabilityinformation that can be considered non-PII can include, but are notlimited to, IP address and HTTP cookies, as long as the cookie does notcontain PII. The distinction between PII and non-PII addressabilityinformation can be important to targeted marketers because anonymousmarketing techniques can be considered more desirable, from a privacystandpoint, than non-anonymous marketing techniques.

To be of value for TMS, each piece of receptiveness information can beassociated with some type of addressability information and vice versa.For example, receptiveness information that someone visited a websitededicated to providing data to individuals shopping for a certainproduct, e.g., automobiles, can provide little value to a targetedmarketer, if no information exists that can identify where the targetedmarketer can send marketing content to that visitor. Conversely, thatsame information combined with addressability information thatidentifies where the targeted marketer can send marketing content to thevisitor can be of greater value.

The information source module 210 also can collect and send data relatedto the operation of the information collection process, e.g., status,configuration, resource consumption, processing rate, match rates, etc.,to the marketing information management module 212.

The marketing information management module 212 can manage theconfiguration of and control the information associated with at leastone marketing campaign being conducted by System 200. The marketinginformation management module 212 can receive and maintain informationabout the marketing campaign, including, but not limited to thefollowing: who is sponsoring the marketing campaign and billinginformation for the sponsor; how to identify a target audience member(TAM), e.g., what receptiveness information to look for; whichdistribution channels to use and the associated addressabilityinformation to acquire; what marketing content to deliver; how long themarketing campaign will last; and what performance metrics to use forthe campaign and current performance relative to those metrics. Themarketing information management module 212 can send relevant portionsof this information to the other elements of System 200 to control,manage and monitor those elements' functions.

The marketing information processing module 214 can receive and processinformation from the information source module 210 in conjunction withthe control information received from the marketing informationmanagement module 212 to produce and use actionable marketinginformation (AMI).

AMI can be receptiveness information associated with addressabilityinformation. AMI can be the basis for controlling a targeted marketingcampaign. The effectiveness of AMI at controlling a targeted marketingcampaign can depend on the quality of the receptiveness information andthe addressability information. The metric for measuring how well thereceptiveness information and, by extension, the AMI can be used topredict the receptiveness of a target TAM to the marketing content canbe deemed predictive ability. The metric for measuring how accuratelythe addressability information and, by extension, the AMI can be used todeliver marketing content to a targeted audience member, while avoidingdelivery to non-targeted individuals, can be deemed targeting accuracy.For example, AMI that can be used to deliver marketing content to atargeted individual can have greater targeting accuracy than AMI thatcan be used to deliver marketing content to a group to which thatindividual belongs, e.g., a household or a company. High-value AMI canhave high predictive ability and high targeting accuracy.

The value of AMI also can be affected by other attributes of theinformation that comprises the AMI, including, but not limited to, thefollowing: 1) timeliness, including how quickly the information can beacquired, processed and acted upon; 2) privacy attributes, includingwhether the information is anonymous, collected with the knowledge andpermission of the owner, retained for an extended period of time, sharedwith others, etc.; 3) source, including any restrictions imposed on useof the information; 4) cost, including the cost to acquire, process andact upon the information; 5) scope, including the breadth of theinformation. For example, a source of information can produce AMI with ahigh predictive ability but applicable only to a small potentialaudience. Another source of information can produce AMI with lowerpredictive ability but applicable to a large potential audience. Anideal source of information can produce highly predictive AMI with hightargeting accuracy and with wide scope, leading to the identification ofa large audience of receptive individuals that can be accuratelytargeted.

The marketing information processing module 214 can combine individualunits of receptiveness information, addressability information and AMIto improve the quality of AMI and generate new AMI. For example, bycombining information about multiple websites visited by the user 30,the marketing information processing module 214 can be able to generateAMI with higher predictive ability than AMI based on one website visitedby the user 30. AMI with higher targeting accuracy also can begenerated. For example, using information about the user's IP addressduring an IP access session to determine the user's mailing address bycross-referencing data stored in the service attachment module 46 andthe user account module 44, the marketing information processing module214 can associate relevant IP service usage information to the user'smailing address, enabling the IP service usage information to be used todrive a direct mail campaign based on knowledge of the user's mailingaddress.

The distribution channel module 216 can send marketing content once themarketing information processing module 214 combines AMI with marketingcontent from the marketing information management module 212. A widerange of distribution channels can be employed by the distributionchannel module 216 to send marketing content. The distribution channelmodule 216 can use an on-demand distribution channel, e.g., direct mail.Marketing content can be sent to the user 30 through an on-demanddistribution channel at any time. The distribution channel module 216can use an opportunistic distribution channel, e.g., a web advertisementinsertion server. Marketing content can be sent to the user 30 throughan opportunistic distribution channel only when the opportunity existsto do so. For example, a web advertisement insertion server can insert aweb advertisement targeted to the user 30 into the web page of a websitewhen the server detects the presence of the user 30 at the website.Thus, the advertisement can be sent to the user 30 only when the user 30visits a website served by that advertisement insertion server. Once thedistribution channel module 216 sends marketing content to a TAM, thedistribution channel module 216 can send feedback to the marketinginformation processing module 214 to influence future decisions.

The performance analysis module 218 can receive information from themarketing information management module 212 and the distribution channelmodule 216 to measure the effectiveness of at least one marketingcampaign. The performance analysis module 218 also can identify meansfor marketing campaign optimization and report results back to themarketing information management module 212. The performance analysismodule 218 can include mechanisms for detecting and analyzing responsesfrom both targeted and non-targeted audience members.

Referring to FIG. 4, a flowchart of a method for providing targetedmarketing services, according to an exemplary embodiment, isillustrated. In block 250, the marketing information management module212 can create, define and organize at least one marketing campaign.This process can include processing the information about the marketingcampaign previously identified as received and maintained by themarketing information management module 212. Method 240 then can proceedto block 260.

In block 260, the information source module 210 can collect sourcemarketing information about at least one potential audience member(PAM). A PAM can be an entity considered for inclusion in at least onetarget audience for at least one marketing campaign. A PAM can be anindividual or a group. The relationship between a PAM and one or moreindividuals can be determined by the nature of the information that canbe used to address the entity. One or more unique identifiers canpotentially be associated with a PAM. Depending on the embodiment of theTMS system, such identifiers can include, but are not limited to, userIDs, IP access session IDs, device IDs, unique IDs embedded in HTTPcookies, various other service-related IDs, etc. A unit of AMI can beassociated with a PAM.

The information source module 210 can collect source marketinginformation from multiple locations and can incorporate previouslydescribed elements of the service provider's infrastructure. The useraccount module 44 can contain valuable information about the user 30,including, but not limited to, where the user 30 is located, how toreach the user 30, what services the user 30 uses and how those servicesare provisioned. This information can include both addressabilityinformation, e.g., mailing address, e-mail address, telephone number,etc., and receptiveness information, e.g., services used, location, etc.For example, location can serve as receptiveness information becauselocation can be used to select or filter at least one PAM. User locationcan be obtained in a number of ways, including, but not limited to,directly from existing information, e.g., zip code, telephone area code,etc., or inferentially from access connection configuration information,e.g., combining information about the user's terminating BRAS withinformation about the location of the BRAS.

Information contained in the user account module 44 also can be linkedwith other information sources, in much the same way that primary andforeign keys can be used in relational databases to link togetherinformation stored in different database tables. For example, a set-topbox ID can be used to link video service usage information to a useraccount ID and subsequently back to the user's address for billingpurposes. Similarly, the relationships between the set-top box ID, theuser account ID and the user's address can be used to link receptivenessinformation, e.g., video service usage, to addressability information,e.g., mailing address, for targeted marketing purposes. Information inthe user account module 44 that can serve, in one form or another, as akey/relational link for linking other pieces of information can include,but is not limited to, the following: unique user identifiers, e.g., aunique subscriber account number; e-mail addresses; telephone numbers;service authentication and identifying credentials, e.g., user IDs,public key certificates, private shared secrets, etc.; user device IDs,e.g., set-top box IDs, SIM-card IDs, device MAC addresses, etc.; and/oruniquely identifying access link information, e.g., a user's accesscircuit ID combined with an identifier for the circuit's terminatingBRAS.

As previously described, the systems and methods comprising the useraccount module 44 are well known in the art. For the purposes of usingelements of the user account module 44 as part of the information sourcemodule 210, these same systems and methods can be used. Some extensionscan be implemented to expose the information in the user account module44 to other components of the information source module 210 or toorganize the information in a more suitable manner for use. The samefundamental information technologies underlying the service provider'suse of the user account module 44 to deliver IP-based services, however,can be used to implement elements of the user account module 44 as partof the information source module 210.

The information source module 210 can support multiple means foraccessing marketing information contained in the user account module 44.For example, other components of the information source module 210 canbe enabled to query elements of the user account module 44 for relevantmarketing information. Support for such queries can be general and can,for example, include mechanisms for retrieving information based on awide range of query attributes, including, but not limited to, user ID,access-link-information, other identifiers associated with the user 30or the user's equipment, address information, etc. The informationretrieved by such queries also can include all or part of theinformation identified as potential query attributes. The interfacebetween the relevant elements of the user account module 44 and othercomponents of the information source module 210 also can supportasynchronous notification functions, whereby the other components can benotified asynchronously of changes in the state of the informationmaintained by the user account module 44. The interfaces between therelevant elements of the user account module 44 and other components ofthe information source module 210 can include at least one of theinterfaces used by the user account module 44 in support of the deliveryof IP services.

Elements of the service attachment module 46, in general, and thenetwork attachment module 48, in particular, also can comprise elementsof the information source module 210. The network attachment module'sability to manage the use of IP addresses and track the lifecycle of IPaccess sessions can make the network attachment module 48 a valuablesource of marketing information. Information about the user's IP accesssession maintained by the network attachment module 48 can include, butis not limited to, the following: a unique IP access session identifier,a unique IP address; a unique user identifier; unique information aboutthe user's access connection, e.g., BRAS identifiers, access circuitidentifiers, etc.; and IP access session lifecycle information, e.g.,status, start time, end time, etc. This information can be used toassociate the user 30 with an IP address during an IP access session.Thus, during an IP access session, any information that can beassociated with an IP address also can, in turn, be associated with theuser 30 associated with that IP address.

This association between the user 30 and the IP address can be used toobtain addressability information in at least two ways. First, the IPaddress itself can be addressability information because it can be usedto directly address the user 30. For example, the user 30 can bebrowsing a website, and the web-server delivering the content canrecognize the user 30 based on the source IP address of the HTTPrequest. The web-server can use the IP address to insert or otherwisesend targeted marketing content into the content sent to the user 30. Asimilar approach can be applied to services other than web-browsing,such as video-on-demand service, for example.

Second, the IP address to user association maintained by an IP accesssession can be used to relate an IP address to more extensiveaddressability information. For example, the information source module210 can collect useful receptiveness information, e.g., information thatthe user 30 has visited a website of interest, and this receptivenessinformation can be associated with an IP access session IP address. Thereceptiveness information then can be linked back to the user 30 via theIP address to user association. The user 30 then can be linked to moreextensive addressability information, e.g., mailing address, phonenumber, e-mail address, etc., associated with the user 30 elsewhere inthe service provider's system. Thus, the information relating an IPaddress to a user 30, at a given point in time, can be used to connectto more extensive addressability information beyond the IP addressalone.

This association between the IP address and the user's unique identifierat a given point in time can be direct and explicitly maintained in thenetwork attachment module 48. The association between the IP address andthe user's unique identifier at a given point in time can be indirectand can be associated via one or more association steps. For example,the network attachment module 4837 can maintain information associatingthe use of an IP address at a given point in time to information thatuniquely identifies the user's access connection, e.g., BRAS and circuitID. The information that uniquely identifies the user's accessconnection can, in turn, be associated with other information in theuser account module 44 and/or the network attachment module 48 thatrelates the user's access connection information to the user's uniqueidentifier.

The addressability information accessible through the network attachmentmodule 48 can be either PII or non-PII, depending on the serviceprovider's approach and policies. For example, when an IP address isused as addressability information to send marketing content to the user30 associated with an IP access session, the addressability informationcan be considered non-PII because the IP address, and it's usage at agiven point in time for IP-based services does not personally identifythe subscriber, nor can the IP address be easily combined with publiclyavailable information to uniquely identify the user 30. Conversely, whenthe IP address associated with the user 30 during the course of an IPaccess session is combined with other addressability informationmaintained by the service provider 40, such as user account informationmaintained in the user account module 44, the IP address can be used toobtain and link PII addressability information, e.g., a mailing address,to the user 30 and the user's receptiveness information.

The association between the user 30 and the IP address also can be usedto obtain receptiveness information in at least two ways. First, just asthe association between an IP address and a user ID can be used toassociate receptiveness information to extended addressabilityinformation, the same association can be used to associate multiplepieces of receptiveness information to the user 30. The continuity ofthe association between the user 30 and an IP address during an IPaccess session can allow any receptiveness information keyed to the IPaddress during the IP access session to be associated with the user 30.This concept can apply both to information collected across multiplesources and information collected over time.

Referring to FIG. 5, a block diagram showing relationships betweeninformation to enable associating IP address-keyed receptivenessinformation to users, according to an exemplary embodiment, isillustrated. Block 310 can represent mytes of receptiveness informationgenerated using IP Address A over a given period of time. A myte can bedefined as an individual unit of marketing information. The definingcharacteristic of a myte can be that the marketing information can belinked, either directly or indirectly, to a PAM. A myte that containsreceptiveness information can be a receptiveness information myte(RI-myte). A myte that contains addressability information can be anaddressability information myte (AI-myte). Multiple mytes can be linkedand combined in various ways to create AMI and to determine whether totarget a PAM for marketing content delivery. Block 312 can represent anRI-myte generated at time 4.8 (RI-myte A4.8). Timestamp “4.8” can be asimplified representation, for exemplary purposes, of a measurement of apoint in time. The timestamp used can be a measurement of the number ofseconds since Jan. 1, 1970, e.g. “11804744374,” a YYYY.MM.DD.HH:MM:SSformat, e.g., 2007.06.01.22:05:36, or any other format to denote adistinct point in time. Block 314 can represent an RI-myte generated attime 5.2 (RI-myte A5.2). Block 316 can represent an RI-myte generated attime 5.6 (RI-myte A5.6).

Block 320 can represent mytes of receptiveness information generatedusing IP Address B over a given period of time that overlaps with thegiven period of time that RI-mytes are being generated using IP AddressA. Block 322 can represent an RI-myte generated at time 4.1 (RI-myteB4.1). Block 324 can represent an RI-myte generated at time 5.2 (RI-myteB5.2). Block 326 can represent an RI-myte generated at time 5.8 (RI-myteB5.8).

Block 330 can represent IP access session information maintained by theservice provider 40 in at least one module. The network attachmentmodule 48 can have allocated IP address A to a user (User1) with user IDA1 at time 1.0 and de-allocated IP address A from User1 at time 5.3. Thenetwork attachment module 48 can have allocated IP address B to a seconduser (User2) with user ID BI at time 2.3 and not yet de-allocated IPaddress B from that User2. The network attachment module 48 can haveallocated IP address A to a third user (User3) with user ID A2 at time5.6 and not yet de-allocated IP address A from User3.

By combining the information available in Block 310 with the informationavailable in Block 330, the service provider 40 can associate eachRI-myte with the user ID using IP address A when the RI myte wasgenerated. By combining the information available in Block 320 with theinformation available in Block 330, the service provider 40 canassociate each RI-myte with the user ID using IP address B when the RImyte was generated. Thus, the service provider 40 can associate RI-mytesA4.8 and A5.2 with user ID A1, RI-mytes B4.1, B5.2 and B5.8 with user IDBI and RI-myte A5.4 with user ID A2 as represented in Block 340.

Block 350 can represent user account information maintained by theservice provider 40 in at least one module. The user account informationcan associate each user with the user's user ID. By combining theinformation available in Block 350 with the information available inBlock 340, the service provider 40 can associate each RI-myte with aspecific user and other information associated with that specific user.Thus, the service provider 40 can associate RI-mytes A4.8 and A5.2 withuser User1, RI-mytes B4.1, B5.2 and B5.8 with user User2 and RI-myteA5.6 with user User3 as represented in Block 360. This association witheach specific user can include association with each specific user'sname, address, telephone number or any other addressability informationassociated with the specific user that can be maintained in the serviceprovider's system.

The second way that IP access session information can be used asreceptiveness information is by using the IP address associated with anIP access session to infer information about the geographic location ofthe user 30. For example, the service provider 40 can associate at leastone contiguous range of IP addresses to a single network access element,e.g., a BRAS. Each single network access element, in turn, can serviceonly users in a single geographic area. In a DSL service scenario, theBRAS can be located in a telephone company's central office and canservice only users whose telephone lines are serviced by that centraloffice. Thus, the geographic scope of the IP addresses associated withthe BRAS can be limited to a small geographic area, e.g., addresseswithin a single zip code or a small number of zip codes.

The information source module 210 can support multiple means foraccessing marketing information contained in the network attachmentmodule 48. For example, other components of the information sourcemodule 210 can be enabled to query elements of the network attachmentmodule 48 for relevant marketing information. Support for such queriescan be general and can, for example, include mechanisms for retrievinginformation based on a wide range of query attributes, including, butnot limited to, a user ID, an IP address and timestamp, a unique IPaccess session ID, unique user access connection information, etc. Theinformation retrieved by such queries also can include all or part ofthe information identified as potential query attributes.

The interface between the relevant elements of the network attachmentmodule 48 and other components of the information source module 210 alsocan support asynchronous notification functions, whereby the othercomponents can be notified asynchronously of changes in the state of theinformation maintained by the network attachment module 48. For example,the network attachment module 48 can notify at least one other componentof the information source module 210 when an IP access sessionassociated with a given IP address ends, so that session-relatedinformation can be updated, consolidated or otherwise processed. Theinterfaces between the relevant elements of the network attachmentmodule 48 and other components of the information source module 210 caninclude at least one of the interfaces used by the network attachmentmodule 48 in support of the delivery of IP services.

Elements of the domain name resolution module 50 also can compriseelements of the information source module 210. Information about the useof DNS services can be a source of receptiveness information becausehuman-legible domain names can be used ubiquitously throughout IP-basedservices, including for web-based services, but also for other IP-basedvideo and voice services. Thus, DNS usage can be an integral part ofvirtually every IP-based service.

For example, the user 30, as part of remodeling a kitchen, can intend topurchase and install new lighting fixtures. The user 30 can browse siteson an IP-based network to explore kitchen lighting options before makinga purchase decision. The user 30 can use an IP-based network searchservice, such as the one offered for the Internet at www.google.com, toidentify a set of websites specializing in “kitchen lighting products.”Upon receiving a list of such websites from the IP-based network searchservice, the user 30 can visit at least one of the websites to researchvarious product options. The user 30 can purchase at least one productfrom at least one of the websites during an initial visit or can conductresearch over a period of time, e.g., several days, at various websitesbefore selecting a style and manufacturer and making a purchase.

During this process, the DNS can play a role. The user 30 can enter thedomain name “www.google.com” into the browser, rather than theassociated IP address, to reach the website associated with that domainname. Similarly the URLs in the list of websites provided by theIP-based network search service can be specified in terms of domainnames, rather than in terms of IP addresses, e.g.,http://www.lighting.com, rather than http://63.240.154.97. In order forthe user's browser to communicate with any one of the provided websites,however, the user's browser can use the IP address, rather than thedomain name, to establish an IP connection, e.g., TCP/IP in the case ofHTTP, between the user interface module 32 and the computer hosting thewebsite. In other words, IP communication can be based on IP addresses,rather than domain names. Because the user 30 can find the use of IPaddresses cumbersome and can prefer to use domain names, the domain nameresolution module 50 can provide translations between the two.

Information about the use of DNS services can be a source ofreceptiveness information because domain names themselves frequently canbe associated with very specific activities. For example, the domainname “www.lighting.com” can be the domain name for a website thatenables online shopping for lighting products. The user 30 who requestsDNS services for this domain name can be expected to be shopping forlighting products. Domain names can be correlated with specific kinds ofactivities for a wide range of activities, products and services. Thus,DNS usage can provide information about the online activities of theuser 30, which, in turn, can be used to infer general interests and/orpotential receptiveness to at least one marketing campaign. In otherwords, DNS usage can supply receptiveness information.

A DNS request can be sent by the user interface module 32 to at leastone DNS server in the domain name resolution module 50. The structureand content of the request can be specified in accordance with theInternet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards for the DNS. Theinformation contained in the IP-packet that carries the DNS request caninclude, but is not limited to, the following: the IP address of thesystem making the request, an indication that the request is for domainname resolution, the domain name to be resolved, etc. The domain nameresolution module 50 can capture this and other information for eachdomain name resolution request.

The user endpoint device that originates a DNS request can be operatingon a private network using private/non-routable IP addresses, such asmight occur for a PC operating in a home network. As the DNS packetstraverse the routing device, e.g., home router, that is responsible formanaging the private address space, a NAT operation can be performed onthe packets, as is well known in the art. This NAT operation cantranslate the private source IP address of the packet into the public(and routable) IP address associated with the user 30. It is this publicIP address that can be seen and captured by the domain name resolutionmodule 50.

For example, for each successfully resolved request, the informationrecorded by the domain name resolution module 50 can include, but is notlimited to, the following: a timestamp of the time at which the requestwas received, the IP address of the system making the request, thedomain name string to be resolved, the IP address associated with thedomain name, the time-to-live value returned with the response, a uniqueidentifier for the DNS server that processed the request, the status ofthe request, e.g., success or failure, etc. Each unit of marketinginformation created by a single DNS request/response transaction can bean RI-myte.

These RI-mytes can be aggregated and combined with other information invarious ways. For example, the timestamp of the time at which therequest was received and the IP address of the system making the requestcan be combined with information available in the network attachmentmodule 48 to associate the information with an IP access session and,hence, the user 30. Using this approach, receptiveness informationgenerated during DNS usage can be associated with the user 30 and,possibly, associated with the user's addressability information.

The information source module 210 can support multiple means foraccessing marketing information contained in the domain name resolutionmodule 50. For example, a near-real-time stream can be implementedwhereby each time that a DNS transaction is processed, an RI-myte isgenerated and delivered to at least one other component of theinformation source module 210. The RI-mytes also can be collected anddelivered in non-near-real-time. Other components of the informationsource module 210 also can be enabled to query elements of the domainname resolution module 50. The information delivered to other componentsof the information source module 210 can include, but is not limited to,the following: a timestamp of the time at which the request wasreceived, the IP address of the system making the request, the domainname string to be resolved, the IP address associated with the domainname, a list of at least one marketing campaign or other patternmatching information that the DNS transaction associated with the recordmatched, etc.

A wide range of matching, filtering and aggregation functions can beimplemented within the domain name resolution module 50. These functionsalso can be implemented elsewhere in the information source module 210or in the marketing information processing module 214. Elements of thedomain name resolution module 50 also can be part of the marketinginformation processing module 214.

The interfaces between the relevant elements of the domain nameresolution module 50 and other components of the information sourcemodule 210 can include at least one of the interfaces used by the domainname resolution module 50 in support of the delivery of IP services. Forexample, the hardware and software that comprise the DNS servers can beextended to support the additional functionality associated with theinformation source module 210. In other words, the information sourcemodule functions can be integrated directly into the DNS server systemsthemselves. As the DNS servers perform the computations associated withprocessing DNS transactions, the DNS servers also can perform theinformation source module functions. This approach can reduce the amountof physical hardware in the system. On the other hand, this approach caninvolve additional processing associated with the information sourcemodule functions that can interfere with normal domain name resolutionfunctions, involve software upgrades and other activities that candisrupt domain name resolution functions and add complexity to the DNSservers.

The existing DNS servers also can be left in place and an additionalprocessing element added to perform the information source modulefunctions. For example, part or all of the IP traffic that normallytraverses the communication link leading to a DNS server can be mirroredby a switch or routing device. The IP traffic can be delivered to theadditional processing element added to perform the information sourcemodule functions for processing. This approach can allow the DNS serversto operate in their nominal role without change or interruption, whileallowing the additional processing element to receive all relevant DNStransaction traffic for processing.

Regardless of the approach used, the service provider 40 can havemultiple DNS servers. These servers can be deployed across ageographically dispersed area. Thus, the components that comprise thedomain name resolution module 50 and the information source module 210also can be deployed across a geographically dispersed area. Additionaldistributed systems technologies can control, configure, manage andaggregate information associated with these modules. The informationtechnologies associated with implementing such distributed systems arewell known in the art.

Returning to FIG. 4, the marketing campaign definition in block 250 caninfluence the collection of source marketing information in block 260.For example, the volume of the service provider's DNS transactions canbe large. Moreover, many domain names associated with DNS transactionscan be irrelevant to predicting activities of interest. Therefore, aspart of the marketing campaign definition in block 250, the marketinginformation management module 212 can deliver information used by theinformation source module 210 to filter the information collected fromthe domain name resolution module 50.

The information supplied by the marketing information management module212 can include, but is not limited to, filtering information that canbe used to differentiate between DNS requests that are of interest andthose that are not. This filtering information can relate to a varietyof attributes which can include, but are not limited to, the IP addressof the system making the request, the domain name string to be resolved,at least one marketing campaign identifier (or other use indicator(s))associated with the filter parameter, etc.

For example, the marketing information management module 212 can specifyat least one filter description to be sent to the marketing informationprocessing module 214 or to the information source module 210 thatcontains the following information for each description: at least onedomain name pattern and at least one marketing campaign identifier. Thedomain name pattern can be used to identify DNS transactions to selectfor further processing. The domain name pattern can be matched againstthe domain name string to be resolved in a DNS transaction. If a matchoccurs, the associated DNS transaction can be processed further tocreate an RI-myte, which then can be sent to the marketing informationprocessing module 214. If no match occurs for any filter, then thetransaction can be ignored.

The at least one marketing campaign identifier associated with a filterdescription can provide an indication of the marketing campaign (orother uses) to which the information can apply. When a DNS transactionmatches a filter pattern, the RI-myte that is created can include the atleast one marketing campaign identifier associated with the filter, sodownstream elements can associate different RI-mytes with specificmarketing campaigns (or other potential uses) for further processing.

A filter pattern specified in a filter description can take on a varietyof forms. For example, filter patterns can include, but are not limitedto, the following: exact string matches, partial string matches,case-sensitive or case-insensitive matches, wildcards, range matches,etc. For example, a filter description for a lighting company thatwishes to identify users who may be shopping for lighting productsonline could be specified as a campaign ID 9876554 with a filter patternas follows: exact match to www.lighting.com; exact match towww.LightingDirect.com; case-insensitive match towww.lightinguniverse.com; case-sensitive, partial match to*.bellacorKitchen.com; case-insensitive, partial match to*gelighting.com, etc.

Block 260 also can occur in parallel with block 250 with the twoprocesses influencing each other. For example, the information sourcemodule 210 can collect and send data related to the operation of thedomain name resolution module 50, e.g., status, configuration, resourceconsumption, processing rate, match rates, etc., back to the marketinginformation management module 212 for use in refining the marketingcampaign. Method 240 then can proceed to block 270.

In block 270, the marketing information processing module 214 canprocess the information supplied by the marketing information managementmodule 212 and the information source module 210 to generate AMI andmatch it to marketing content. Block 270 can comprise a wide range ofinformation processing activities including, but not limited to,matching, filtering, sorting, aggregating, accumulating, combining,de-referencing, etc. to generate AMI. Using that AMI, the marketinginformation processing module 214 can match marketing content from atleast one marketing campaign with at least one TAM.

The marketing information processing module 214 can perform severaltypes of operations to process the information supplied by the marketinginformation management module 212 and the information source module 210,including, but not limited to, the following: operations related toprocessing and managing receptiveness information, e.g., selecting andfiltering receptiveness information, associating receptivenessinformation with a PAM, combining receptiveness information in variousways to improve its predictive value, aging receptiveness informationover time as its relevance/predictive value wanes, etc.; operationsrelated to creating and maintaining state and profile information for aPAM, e.g., combining new receptiveness information with oldreceptiveness information or previous state and profile information tocompute new state and profile information, aging state and profileinformation over time as its relevance/predictive value wanes, storingstate and profile information over time, retrieving state and profileinformation as needed to support other operations, etc.; operationsrelated to processing and managing addressability information, e.g.,expanding the addressability information associated with a PAM, updatingand maintaining addressability information over time, etc.; operationsrelated to selecting and maintaining target audiences, e.g., decidingwhether a PAM should be a member of a target audience, maintaining andupdating membership information over time, generating audience lists andsupporting membership queries, etc.

Referring to FIG. 6, a flowchart of a method for implementing theinformation and decision processing functions of the marketinginformation processing module, according to an exemplary embodiment, isillustrated. In block 410, the marketing information processing module214 can receive receptiveness information from the information sourcemodule 210. Receptiveness information can be in the form of at least oneRI-myte. The at least one RI-myte can be received in near-real-time. Theat least one RI-myte can be received individually or in conjunction withother RI-mytes. Block 410 can involve receiving the at least oneRI-myte, buffering, and possibly storing, the at least one RI-myte andmaking the at least one RI-myte available to subsequent stages. Method400 then can proceed to block 420.

In block 420, the at least one RI-myte can be filtered and additionalinformation can be associated with the at least one RI-myte, e.g.,marketing campaign identifiers for marketing campaigns to which the atleast one RI-myte could be relevant. A wide range of filteringoperations can be employed. Filtering operations can be appliedindividually or in combination. Examples of possible filters caninclude, but are not limited to, the following: domain name filters, URLfilters, source IP address filters, zip code filters, opt-out filters,etc.

Domain name filters can specify patterns for domain name strings thatmay be of interest. RI-mytes that contain domain name information, e.g.,RI-mytes originating from a DNS transaction, that matches the patterncan be accepted. RI-mytes that contain domain name information that doesnot match the pattern can be rejected. Domain name filters can be usefulbecause DNS domain name request information can be used to detect useractivity in various areas of interest.

URL filters can specify patterns for URL strings that can be ofinterest. RI-mytes containing URLs can come from a variety of sources.URL filters can be useful because URL usage information can be used todetect user activity in certain areas of interest.

Source IP address filters can specify patterns for source IP addressesthat can be contained in an RI-myte. Source IP address filters can beuseful for a wide range of information. For example, source IP addressfilters can be used to limit the geographic scope of acceptedreceptiveness information because the service provider 40 can allocateIP addresses in a manner that allows contiguous ranges of IP addressesto be associated with specific geographic regions.

Zip code filters can specify a pattern of zip codes that can be used tofilter receptiveness information. Zip code filters can be useful forgeographic filtering. Incoming RI-mytes can lack zip code informationinitially. Therefore, processing can be performed to expand theaddressability information associated with the RI-myte before the zipcode filter is applied. For example, the processing can include, but isnot limited to the following steps: 1) using the IP address andtimestamp to identify the user's IP access session; 2) associating theIP access session with the user's ID; 3) using the user's ID to accessuser account data containing the user's mailing address; and 4)extracting the zip-code from the mailing address and associating it withthe RI-myte.

Opt-out filters can be used to detect and reject receptivenessinformation that pertains to users who do not wish to participate asPAMs in some or all of the marketing services. As with the zip codefilters, before such filters can be applied, incoming receptivenessinformation can be expanded with additional ‘opt-out’ information byperforming one or more information expansion operations in order toassociate opt-out information with the RI-myte in question.

In addition to using filters to select or reject RI-mytes, filteringoperations can, as a side effect, attach additional information to anRI-myte. For example, a filter can be associated with at least onespecific marketing campaign and can attach this information to theRI-mytes that the filter matches in order to facilitate subsequentprocessing.

If the at least one RI-myte does not match any of the various filteringcriteria, Method 400 then can proceed to block 422. In block 422, the atleast one RI-myte can be discarded. If the at least one RI-myte matchesat least one of the various filtering criteria, the at least one RI-mytecan be retained, and Method 400 then can proceed to block 430.

In block 430, the at least one RI-myte can be associated with at leastone PAM identifier. The at least one PAM can be contained in the atleast one RI-myte. The at least one RI-myte can be associated with theat least one PAM identifier by combining and linking the informationcontained in the at least one RI-myte with other information availableto the marketing information processing module 214.

For example, an RI-myte generated by a DNS transaction can containinformation including, but not limited to, the domain name requested,the timestamp of the request and the IP address of the user 30 issuingthe request. This information alone can be insufficient to associate theRI-myte with the user 30. However, the user's identity can be determinedby linking the source IP address and timestamp information contained inthe RI-myte with additional information about the service provider's IPaccess sessions maintained in the network attachment module 48. Usingthis additional information, the IP access session ID and, if desired,the user ID can be associated with the RI-myte.

Multiple identifiers can be used to identify a PAM, including, but notlimited to, an IP access session ID, a user ID, at least one device ID,a service-specific user ID, etc. The at least one RI-myte can contain avariety of information that can be used as input for linking the RI-myteto the at least one PAM identifier, including, but not limited to, an IPaddress, timestamp information, at least one device ID, aservice-specific user ID, cookies, etc.

The information available to the marketing information processing module214 for associating the at least one RI-myte with the at least one PAMidentifier can be contained in various elements of the serviceprovider's infrastructure. For example, an IP access session ID, a userID, a unique IP address, timestamp information and unique accessconnection information can all be associated with each other in thenetwork attachment module 48. The user ID and the unique accessconnection information also can be associated with each other, as wellas with at least one service-specific user ID and at least one deviceID, in the user account module 44. The at least one service-specificuser ID and the at least one device ID also can be associated with eachother, as well as with the unique IP address, the timestamp informationand at least one HTTP cookie-based ID, in the other services module 52.Other associations can exist between identity information contained inthe various modules.

By exploiting the associations between these various forms of identityinformation, the at least one RI-myte can be associated with the PAM whowas involved in the at least one RI-myte's generation. These associationoperations can be applied in parallel and/or in sequence to expand theinformation associated with the at least one RI-myte. The informationassociated with the at least one RI-myte can be virtually limitless aslong as the proper relational associations exist between the variouspieces of information. Thus, an association operation can be used toassociate at least one RI-myte with at least one PAM, as well as withother information, e.g., addressability information. Method 400 then canproceed to block 434.

In block 434, the marketing information processing module 214 can electwhether to retain information gathered about the status of at least onePAM for use in the future, for example, to establish a context forfuture campaign decisions. If the marketing information processingmodule 214 retains PAM state information, Method 400 can proceed toblock 436. In block 436, the PAM state information can be updated.Method 400 then can proceed to block 440.

In block 440, the at least one RI-myte that has been associated with theat least one PAM can be combined and considered with any otherinformation maintained with that at least one PAM. This combinedinformation can be used in multiple ways, including, but not limited to,accumulating evidence in favor of a decision, performing a logicaloperation that leads to a decision, compressing the information into amore compact form, etc. For example, the combined information can beused to evaluate whether the at least one PAM should be included as amember or members of at least one target audience for at least onemarketing campaign.

A wide range of information fusion and decision algorithms can be used,ranging from stateless triggers based on the occurrence of a singlepiece of receptiveness information to stateful algorithms that can bearbitrarily complex and highly intelligent. The output of thesealgorithms can be new receptiveness information that results from thecombination of other pieces of information. This new receptivenessinformation can be processed further, used for decision making, storedas state for future processing or used to update profile informationassociated with a PAM, etc. The component pieces of information that arecombined to create the new receptiveness information can come from theservice provider's infrastructure or from external sources. Thecomponent pieces of information that are combined to create the newreceptiveness information can originate at different points in time,from different sources or both.

A wide variety of combining operations can be used. For example, anumeric weight can be assigned to each piece of receptivenessinformation. Separate pieces of receptiveness information then can becombined through a simple mathematical operation, e.g., summation,weighted summation, etc. Such numerical methods can be useful toimplement algorithms by which numeric thresholds can be used to makeaudience membership decisions. In another example, receptivenessinformation can be combined based on logical operations. Each piece ofreceptiveness information can be viewed as the occurrence of aproposition, which can be applied to an inference rule to reach aconclusion, e.g., a decision.

In addition to combining operations, aging operations can be used toreflect the fact that the predictive ability of information can waneover time. Therefore, aging operations can be used to age out theinformation over time. For example, a numeric temporal discountingalgorithm can be applied whereby a piece of information is givenprogressively less value as it ages. Information can be maintained andconsidered for a fixed window of time only. Such temporal operations canbe useful to detect and/or estimate levels of increased user activity inareas of interest.

The marketing information processing module 214 also can create andmaintain persistent interest profiles for PAMs. For example, themarketing information processing module 214 can combine the at least oneRI-myte that has been associated with the at least one PAM with otherRI-mytes associated with the same at least one PAM to create, or update,at least one PAM profile. The new PAM profile can be stored, possibly ina PAM profile database. The marketing information processing module 214also can perform periodic updates on the PAM profile without the arrivalof new information associated with the PAM. For example, the marketinginformation processing module 214 can age the PAM profile informationover time.

These PAM profiles can be persistent in the sense that the marketinginformation processing module 214 can maintain them over a period oftime, and they can be unassociated with a single marketing campaign. Bymaintaining an interest profile per PAM, the marketing informationprocessing module 214 can establish a form of persistent receptivenessinformation that can be a resource for making audience selectiondecisions.

These PAM profiles can encode a wide range of information about a PAM.For example, attributes that can be encoded in a PAM profile caninclude, but are not limited to, indicators related to various sports,hobbies, professions, financial matters, travel, generation/age, etc.The same information fusion techniques used to apply receptivenessinformation to individual marketing campaigns also can be applied to thecreation and maintenance of PAM profiles.

Creating and maintaining PAM profiles can decouple, in time, theinformation collection and analysis process from the marketing campaigndecision process. Thus, information collected over a period of time canbe applied, at a later date, to a marketing campaign that had not yetbeen conceived at the time that the PAM profiles were initially created.The marketing information processing module 214 can use the PAM profiledatabase as a source of information for selecting a target audience fora given marketing campaign. This selection process can be based on PAMprofile information either alone or combined with other sources ofreceptiveness information.

All of the information available for the at least one PAM can be used todecide whether the at least one PAM is selected for membership in atleast one target audience. The information used in the membershipdecision can include, but is not limited to the following: anyreceptiveness information that has been associated with the at least onePAM and has survived filtering and processing; any information encodedin the profile of the at least one PAM; any addressability informationassociated with the PAM, especially those forms of addressabilityinformation that can be used by the target marketing campaign; anyinformation about the marketing campaign to which the target audienceapplies, including, but not limited to, specification of aselection/decision algorithm and associated parameters, e.g.,thresholds, time-frames, etc, any intrinsic value (financial orotherwise) associated with the campaign, execution status, such as theactual versus desired number of messages delivered, etc.; any otherPAM-related information, including, but not limited to, informationabout acceptable levels of exposure to marketing messages, either at aper campaign or aggregate level, information about other campaigns towhich the PAM can be a audience member and their associated intrinsicvalues, information about a PAM's willingness to participate, e.g.,opt-in/opt-out information, etc.

A wide range of algorithms can be devised to implement the selectionoperation. For example, an algorithm can determine whether a PAM shouldbe included in a target audience for a given marketing campaign approachbased on calculating a numeric score that weights individual pieces ofrelevant receptiveness information. RI_(i) can be used to denote a pieceof relevant receptiveness information received at time i. W(RI_(i)) canbe used to indicate a weight or numeric value that provides anindication of the extent to which RI_(i) predicts the likely PAM'sreceptiveness to the marketing campaign. W(RI_(i)) values can bepositive, indicating increased receptiveness, or negative, indicatingdecreased receptiveness.

A selection algorithm can be devised whereby a temporally discountedsummation of receptiveness information accumulated over time can becomputed. TV(t) can be a total value estimate of the receptiveness of agiven PAM to a given marketing campaign at time t. TV(t) can be definedas follows: TV(t)=SUM(W((RI_(i))*γ^((t-i))), where the sum can becomputed over all available accumulated receptiveness information and γcan be a temporal discounting factor between 0 and 1. A PAM can beconsidered a candidate for membership in an audience if, at any point intime, the value of TV(t) exceeds a set threshold. Otherwise, the PAM canbe rejected as a candidate for membership in the audience. TV(t) can becomputed when new information becomes available and/or periodically toallow for information aging to discount the metric. If sufficientevidence of receptiveness is accumulated in a sufficiently short periodof time, the PAM will be considered a candidate for the target audience.

TV(t) can account for receptiveness without accounting for otherfactors, including, but not limited to, addressability, exposurecontrol, competing campaigns etc. To account for these other factors,the decision algorithm can be extended with other logic. For example,before adding a PAM to a target audience the decision algorithm canverify that the addressability information used by the target campaign,e.g., mailing address, is available for the PAM. If the addressabilityinformation is not available, the PAM can be rejected. For exposurecontrol, the algorithm can reject the PAM if the number of times the PAMor has been selected for a target audience over a given timeframeexceeds a certain threshold. To account for competing campaigns, theselection algorithm can compare the intrinsic values associated witheach competing campaign and add the PAM to the campaign with the highestvalue first. By combining a series of logical and numeric computations,the algorithm can make audience membership decisions relativelyefficiently.

Once a PAM is selected for a target audience, the marketing informationprocessing module 214 can maintain that selection decision and adjust itover time. Multiple factors can affect the status of a PAM with respectto a given target audience over time, including, but not limited to, thefollowing: the arrival of new receptiveness information; the aging ofreceptiveness information over time; changes in the PAM's addressabilityinformation; changes in the target campaign itself, such as expiration;changes if the status of the PAM identity, such as where the PAM isidentified by an IP access session ID that subsequently is terminated.Algorithms for detecting these factors and updating the membershipstatus of a PAM in response thereto can be devised as long as themarketing information processing module 214 has notification and/orquery support from the other modules in System 200. Method 400 then canproceed to block 444.

In block 444, the marketing information processing module 214 can electwhether to retain information gathered about the status of at least onePAM for use in the future. If the marketing information processingmodule 214 retains PAM state information, Method 400 can proceed toblock 446. In block 446, the PAM state information can be updated.Method 400 then can proceed to block 450.

In block 450, the marketing information processing module 214 can decidewhether to include the at least one PAM as a member or members of atleast one target audience for at least one marketing campaign If the atleast one PAM is not included as a member or members of at least onetarget audience for at least one marketing campaign, Method 400 canproceed to block 452, where Method 400 can end. If the at least one PAMis included as a member or members of at least one target audience forat least one marketing campaign, Method 400 can proceed to block 460.

In block 460, the addressability information associated with the atleast one PAM can be expanded so marketing content associated with themarketing campaign can be sent to the PAM. The marketing informationprocessing module 214 can use addressability information to act on amarketing decision. The marketing information processing module 214 canhave access to a wide range of addressability information, including,but not limited to, a user's IP address, e-mail addresses, postaladdresses, telephone numbers, device IDs, various service-specific userIDs, etc. Addressability information can be part of a PAM identifier,e.g., where the PAM can be identified by a unique identifier whichitself serves as addressability info, such as an e-mail address.Depending upon the at least one target campaign and its at least oneassociated distribution channel, different addressability informationcan be added.

To obtain addressability information, information associated with thePAM can be linked with information available in the information sourcemodule 210. Addressability information expansion operations can beimplemented using the same relational association techniques previouslydescribed for associating receptiveness information with a PAM. In otherwords, addressability information can be associated with a PAM or apiece of receptiveness information by following a chain of relationalassociations, whereby unique keying information can be used to identifythe relevant unit of information

For example, an IP access session ID can be a unique PAM identifier. Toexpand the addressability information associated with the PAM, themarketing information processing module 214 can use the IP accesssession ID as an index key to lookup information about the PAM's IPaccess session in the network attachment module 48. The informationobtained in the lookup operation can include the associated user ID. Theuser ID, in turn, can be used as a index key to retrieve informationabout the user's account from the user account module 44. Theinformation in the user account module 34 can contain the desiredaddressability information, e.g., e-mail addresses, postal address,phone number, etc. In this way, PAM information can be expanded toinclude additional addressability information so the desired marketingcontent can be sent through the desired distribution channel.

In addition to expanding the addressability information associated witha PAM, the marketing information processing module 214 can activelymanage the association and respond to information changes. Such activemanagement can be important where the addressability information can bevolatile. For example, if the user's IP address is being used as theprimary source of addressability, then changes in the user's IP addresscan be reflected in the addressability information associated with theuser 30.

Multiple approaches can be used to manage the relationship between a PAMand it's addressability information. The information source module 210can notify the marketing information processing module 214 upondetecting any change in the addressability information. For example, thenetwork attachment module 48 can notify the marketing informationprocessing module 214 when the user's IP access session terminates, sothat any associated addressability information can be updated. Themarketing information processing module 214 can attempt to verify theaddressability information by querying the information source module 210just before using the addressability information. The marketinginformation processing module 214 can defer expanding addressabilityinformation until the specific addressability information will be usedto send marketing content. Method 400 then can proceed to block 464.

In block 464, the marketing information processing module 214 can electwhether to retain information gathered about the status of at least onePAM for use in the future. If the marketing information processingmodule 214 retains PAM state information, Method 400 can proceed toblock 466. In block 466, the PAM state information can be updated.Method 400 then can proceed to block 470.

In block 470, information about the target audience for at least onemarketing campaign can be updated. Target audience lists can begenerated that can be used to drive on-demand marketing channels, e.g.,direct mail, e-mail, telemarketing, etc. Procedures for generating thesetarget audience lists can vary. Lists of TAMs can be produced inperiodic batches or incrementally as new members are added. Theinformation contained in each target audience list can vary by campaignand by the distribution channel used.

Audience membership information can be stored in a database andmaintained within the marketing information processing module 214 overtime. The database can be an audience membership database. The marketinginformation processing module 214 can expose interfaces by which othercomponents, e.g., the distribution channel module 216, can query themarketing information processing module 214 to obtain audiencemembership information. This capability can be used to send marketingcontent on an opportunistic basis in those instances where the deliveryof marketing content to a TAM can only occur when an opportunity arises.The opportunistic distribution channel can query the marketinginformation processing module 214 in near-real-time when a marketingopportunity becomes, or is about to become, available. For example, thequery can include information that can be used to identify a TAM. Thisinformation can be used by the marketing information processing module214 to lookup stored audience membership information for the TAM andreturn it to the distribution channel module 216, which, in turn, canuse the audience membership information to select and send marketingcontent.

The query interface supported by the audience membership database cansupport a wide range of search capabilities and support audience queriesbased on a wide range of information. This information can include, butis not limited to, the following: IP address and timestamp, e.g., thecurrent time, as a means for looking up a TAM based on IP address and,by association, IP access session ID; device ID, e.g., to identify a TAMvia associated device ID; service-specific user ID, e.g., to identify aTAM via associated service-specific user ID; IP access session ID; userID; e-mail address; geographic information, e.g, to identify a group ofTAMs in a given geographic region; campaign ID information, e.g., tospecify the target audience of interest.

For example, the marketing information processing module 214 can receivea variety of information that causes the marketing informationprocessing module 214 to assign the PAM to a particular marketingcampaign, thus making the PAM a TAM for that campaign. The marketinginformation processing module 214 can store the TAM information in theaudience membership database. The distribution channel module 216 canuse the audience membership database to send marketing content messagesvia an opportunistic distribution channel by querying the database whena marketing opportunity becomes available. The query can includeinformation that can be used to identify the PAM associated with theopportunity, e.g., an IP address. The audience membership database canprocesses the query and send a response, which can include informationabout marketing campaigns for which the PAM is a TAM. Upon receiving theresponse, the distribution channel module 216 can choose appropriatemarketing content, e.g., content associated with the selected marketingcampaign, if any, and send the content to the TAM through thedistribution channel. Usage information about the PAM also can be fedback into the marketing information processing module 214 by thedistribution channel module 216 to aid in controlling exposure.

The audience membership database can be used for purposes other thanservicing opportunistic distribution channel functions. For example, theaudience membership database can be queried by an outside entity togenerate an on-demand audience membership list.

Returning to FIG. 4, after the marketing information processing module214 has processed the information supplied by the marketing informationmanagement module 212 and the information source module 210 to generateAMI and match it to marketing content, Method 240 then can proceed toblock 280.

In block 280, marketing content can be sent to at least one TAM by thedistribution channel module 216. The distribution channel module 216 canmake use of multiple distribution channels as part of an end-to-endservice provider-based TMS system. These distribution channels caninclude, but are not limited to, the following: direct maildistribution, e-mail distribution, telemarketing, web-based advertisinginsertion, IP-transport-based interstitial advertisement insertion,IP-based video service advertisement insertion. These distributionchannels can be used individually or in combination in the context of aservice provider-based TMS system.

These distribution channels can be categorized as on-demand oropportunistic. Marketing content can be sent to a TAM through anon-demand distribution channel at any time, once the TAM has beenidentified and sufficient addressability information has been obtained.On-demand distribution channels can include, but are not limited to,direct mail distribution, e-mail distribution, telemarketing, certainforms of video service advertisement insertion, etc.

For on-demand distribution, the distribution channel module 216 cancontain a marketing content database that can contain marketing content.The distribution channel module 216 can receive at least one TAM listgenerated by the marketing information processing module 214 thatcontains information for at least one TAM. Specifically, the at leastone TAM list can contain addressability and marketing campaigninformation for the at least one TAM. The distribution channel module216 can combine the information in the at least one TAM list withinformation from the marketing content database to send marketingcontent to the at least one TAM. The content and form of the marketingcontent and the methods used to deliver the content can vary. Thedelivery of the content can be in near-real-time relative to the arrivaltime of the at least one TAM list from the marketing informationprocessing module 214 or the timing of the delivery can be decoupledfrom the arrival of the at least one TAM list.

Once the distribution channel module 216 sends the marketing content tothe at least one TAM, the distribution channel module 216 can providefeedback, in the form of exposure reporting, to the marketinginformation processing module 214. This feedback can be used by themarketing information processing module 214 to influence future audiencemembership decisions.

Direct mail distribution can involve sending marketing content to atleast one TAM via the postal service or a private package carrier.Direct mail can be an on-demand distribution channel, in that, onceselection and address information are available, marketing content canbe sent to the TAM at any time. The addressability information used fordirect mail distribution can be a postal address, which can be PII. Theservice provider 40 can obtain the postal address from the user accountmodule 44. Automated direct mail distribution systems are well known inthe art and can be created without resources unique to a serviceprovider 40.

Telemarketing can involve sending marketing content to at least one TAMvia telephone calls made to the TAM. Marketing content can be sent viaautomated systems, human operators or a combination thereof.Telemarketing can be an on-demand distribution channel, in that, onceselection and address information are available, marketing content canbe sent to the TAM at any time. The addressability information used fortelemarketing can be a telephone number, which can be PII. The serviceprovider 40 can obtain the telephone number from the user account module44. Telemarketing systems are well known in the art and can be createdwithout resources unique to a service provider 40.

E-mail distribution can involve sending marketing content to at leastone TAM via electronic mailing systems, including those accessiblethrough the Internet. Marketing content can be sent as individual e-mailmessages and/or can be embedded in other e-mail-based content, such ase-mail-based newsletters. E-mail distribution can be an on-demanddistribution channel, in that, once selection and address informationare available, marketing content can be sent to the TAM at any time. Theaddressability information used for e-mail distribution is an e-mailaddress for the TAM, which can be PII. The service provider 40 canobtain the e-mail address from the user account module 44 and/or fromuser profile database associated with the other services module 52.E-mail distribution systems are well known in the art and can be createdwithout resources unique to a service provider 40. However, the serviceprovider 40 can be able to leverage its existing e-mail distributionsystem for delivering marketing content.

Marketing content can be sent to a TAM through an opportunisticdistribution channel only when an opportunity arises. Opportunisticdistribution channels can include, but are not limited to, webadvertisement insertion, IP-transport-based interstitial advertisementinsertion, certain forms of video service advertisement insertion, etc.Content distribution opportunities can arise based on the activities ofthe TAM, e.g., during the course of a web-browsing session to a specificweb site. Thus, the distribution channel module 216 can initiate aninteraction with the marketing information processing module 214 torequest information about how best to respond to an available marketingopportunity.

Referring to FIG. 7, a flow chart of a method for opportunisticdistribution of marketing content, according to an exemplary embodiment,is illustrated. In block 510, a PAM, using the user interface module 32,can interact with an IP-based service, including, but not limited to,IP-transport services, web-based services, IP-based video-on-demandservices, etc. For example, the PAM can use a PC and other homenetworking devices to interact with a web-based content server to view aweb page or use a set-top-box and other home networking devices tointeract with an IP-based video service to purchase and view a movie.Method 500 then can proceed to block 520.

In block 520, the service provider 40 can detect an opportunity todeliver marketing content during the course of service delivery. Theservice provider 40 then can notify the distribution channel module 216that the opportunity exists. The information conveyed in thenotification can include sufficient information to identify the PAM,e.g. an IP address and timestamp associated with the PAM and/or thePAM's user interface module 32, a device ID, a service-specific user ID,etc. Method 500 then can proceed to block 530.

In block 530, the distribution channel module 216 can query themarketing information processing module 214 to request information aboutavailable marketing campaigns for which the PAM in question can be aTAM. The information in the query can be sufficient to identify the PAM.The query also can contain information that can influence the decisionof the marketing information processing module 214. Method 500 then canproceed to block 540.

In block 540, the marketing information processing module 214 canperform near-real-time processing to determine which marketing campaign,if any, should be applied to the marketing content delivery opportunity.This processing can include accessing an audience membership database.The marketing information processing module 214 then can send a responseto the distribution channel module 216, identifying the marketingcampaign, at which point the PAM can become a TAM. Method 500 then canproceed to block 550.

In block 550, the distribution channel module 216 can retrieve theidentified marketing content from a marketing content database and sendit to the user interface module 32 being used by the TAM for serviceusage. Method 500 then can proceed to block 560.

In block 560, the distribution channel module 216 can send feedback, inthe form of exposure reporting, to the marketing information processingmodule 214. This feedback can be used by the marketing informationprocessing module 214 to influence future audience membership decisions.

Web advertisement insertion can involve inserting marketing content intothe content delivered to at least one TAM as the at least one TAMbrowses one or more websites. For example, a PAM can visit a websiteassociated with a TMS system that can have web advertisement insertioncapabilities. Information that can be used to identify the user can becollected via a variety of means. This information then can be used,possibly in combination with other information collected during thebrowsing process, to select marketing content to deliver to the PAM,making the PAM a TAM. The marketing content can be incorporated into thecontent provided by the website and sent to the TAM. The type and formof marketing content sent to the TAM can vary widely and can be limitedonly to the extent that the marketing content can be incorporated intoHTTP sent content. For example, marketing content can be rendered as abanner advertisement image embedded in the body of an HTML page, as acomplex multimedia application sent via HTTP to the TAM, etc.

Web advertisement insertion can be an opportunistic distributionchannel, in that, marketing content cannot be sent to the TAM at anytime; marketing content can only be sent to the TAM when the TAM isvisiting a website associated with a TMS system that can have webadvertisement insertion capabilities. These websites can be internal,e.g., owned and operated by the service provider 40, or external, e.g.,affiliated, but not owned and operated by the service provider 40.

The addressability information used for web advertisement insertion canvary. Information embedded in HTTP cookies can be used to identify thePAM through a user identifier embedded in the cookie that indicates aunique web-browsing session ID, the identity of a user account that canbe associated with the website, etc. as is well known in the art. For aservice provider-based TMS system, cookie-based approaches toidentifying PAMs can be used, so long as the information encoded in thecookie can be linked through information relationships back to a PAM.

However, an alternative approach is also available. The PAM's IP addressand timestamp can be used as a key for dynamically identifying the PAMas previously discussed. The website, in addition to collecting anyother relevant decision information, can provide the TMS system with thesource IP address and timestamp associated with the PAM's HTTP request.The source IP address and timestamp, in turn, can be used to identifythe PAM using the unique information resources available to the serviceprovider 40. For example, the IP address and timestamp of the requestcan be used to associate the request with the PAM's IP access sessionvia information maintained in the network attachment module 48. The IPaccess session can specify the PAM or can be linked back further to auser ID via information maintained in the network attachment module 48or the user account module 44, which can specify the PAM, or can belinked back further to other types of identifiers, e.g., device ID,service-specific user ID, etc., which can specify the PAM.

This alternative approach can be used without the website delivering atimestamp to the TMS system because it can be implicitly inferred to bethe time that the IP address is delivered. The time that the IP addressis delivered can be used because, in opportunistic distributionchannels, the identification and marketing campaign decision processingoccurs in near-real, time.

The HTTP cookie-based web advertisement insertion approaches are wellknown in the art and can be performed without resources unique to theservice provider 40. The IP address-based web advertisement insertionapproach, on the other hand, can use resources unique to the serviceprovider 40.

Transport-based advertisement insertion can involve using serviceprovider transport resources associated with the IP packet transportmodule 42, e.g., routers, proxies, gateways, etc., to dynamically insertmarketing content in the service content exchanged between the user 30and the service provider 40. The marketing content can be inserted inthe packets that flow between the user 30 and a service entity, e.g.,website, as the packets traverse the IP packet transport module 42. Tosupport this capability, elements of the IP packet transport module 42can be extended to support the distribution channel module 216. Avariety of technologies, well known in the art, can enable theseextended capabilities including, but not limited to, deep-packetinspection devices, proxies, service gateways, etc.

For example, the IP packet transport module 42 can modify theinformation content in an HTTP response delivered from a web server tothe user 30. That modification can be to insert marketing content intothe HTTP content sent by the web server.

Transport-based advertisement insertion can be an opportunisticdistribution channel, in that, marketing content cannot be sent to theTAM at any time; marketing content can only be sent to the TAM duringopportunities provided by the TAM via network usage activity.

The addressability information used for transport-based advertisementinsertion can vary and can depend on the service being used. Forexample, the TAM's IP address and timestamp can identify the PAM, in amanner similar to that previously described for the web advertisementinsertion distribution channel. This approach can be particularly usefulfor transport-based advertisement insertion because the IP address andtimestamp can be extracted from the underlying packet flow beingmanipulated. Other addressability/identity information also can be used.For example, the IP packet transport module 42 can look deeper, e.g.,above open systems interconnection (OSI) layer 4, into the packet flowbetween the user 30 and the service provider 40 to extract HTTP cookies,service user IDs, device IDs, etc. that can be linked back to a PAM viainformation available in a service provider-based TMS system.

Referring back to Method 500, the IP packet transport module 42 canenable the interaction between the PAM and the IP-based service in block510 by transporting the IP packets between the PAM and the IP-basedservice. Elements of the IP packet transport module 42 can detectservice usage as packets traverse the service provider's infrastructure,detect an opportunity to deliver marketing content and convey thisinformation to other elements of the distribution channel module 216 inblock 520. Method 500 then can proceed as described to block 550, whereelements of the distribution channel module 216 can retrieve aninterstitial advertisement from the marketing message database and sendthat interstitial advertisement to elements of the IP packet transportmodule 42, which are also elements of the distribution channel module216, for insertion into the packet stream heading back to the TAM.Method 500 then can proceed as described to block 560.

Transport-based advertisement insertion can be used with multipleend-services, including, but not limited to, web/HTTP-based services,IP-based video services, etc. When used with HTTP-based services, the IPpacket transport module 42 can modify the content of the HTTP responsepackets sent back to the TAM from an end-services web server.

Transport-based advertisement insertion can be used to insert marketingcontent in the content stream associated with an end-service provider,without explicit interaction with, or even knowledge and consent of, theend-service provider. Thus, transport-based advertisement insertion canbe applied to both services that are internal and external to theservice provider 40, including unaffiliated providers of externalservices.

Transport-based advertisement insertion also can be implemented byinstalling elements of the distribution channel module 216 in the userinterface module 32, rather than in the IP packet transport module 42.Using this implementation, marketing content can be sent to a clientdevice, e.g., a set-top box, in advance for insertion based on availableopportunities. This approach can be considered opportunistic, on-demandor a hybrid of an on-demand/opportunistic distribution channel. Theapproach can be considered opportunistic in the sense that marketingcontent can be delivered only when the TAM uses the service. Theapproach can be considered on-demand in the sense that a TMS system cansend the content to the client device any time and the content will,most likely, be sent to the TAM at some point, assuming that the TAMuses the service on a regular basis.

One type of video service advertisement insertion, referred to asclient-side video advertisement insertion can function in this samehybrid manner. In client-side video advertisement insertion, marketingcontent can be sent to and stored on the service user's video terminaldevice, e.g., a set-top box, in advance and spliced into the user'svideo stream on the video terminal device as opportunities arise duringvideo-service play-out. Client-side video advertisement insertion can beused to send marketing content for video-on-demand services as well asfor linear-scheduled video services, e.g., broadcast television.Client-side video advertisement insertion also can be applied to videostreams that have been prerecorded on the video terminal device forplay-out at a later time, e.g., video streams recorded by a digitalvideo recorder.

Client-side video advertisement insertion can be applied to videoservices that are not based on IP-transport. For example, if the videoterminal device has tuning, decoding and media splicing capabilities,marketing content delivered via this type of IP-based distributionchannel can be spliced into a media stream coming from a traditionalradio frequency digital cable service, e.g., quadrature amplitudemodulation-based, or from an over-the-air digital video service, e.g.,Advanced Television Systems Committee-based.

The addressability/identification information used by client-side videoadvertisement insertion can vary. The video terminal device, and thusthe TAM, can be addressed by an IP address and a timestamp, a device ID,a service-specific user ID or other identifying information. Theselection of addressability/identification information can depend on thedifferent characteristics of these different options. For example, theuse of an IP address and timestamp to identify the TAM can be selectedwhere the service provider 40 wishes to operate the marketing service inan anonymous manner. Where anonymity is not an objective, the use ofother identifiers can be more convenient.

Referring to FIG. 8, a flow chart of a method for hybrid distribution ofmarketing content, according to an exemplary embodiment, is illustrated.In block 610, the marketing information processing module 214 can sendat least one TAM list to elements of the distribution channel module 216located in the service provider's infrastructure. The at least one TAMlist can associate at least one targeted marketing campaign to at leastone TAM and the TAM's associated addressability/identity information.Method 600 then can proceed to block 620.

In block 620, the elements of the distribution channel module 216located in the service provider's infrastructure can retrieve themarketing content associated with the at least one targeted marketingcampaign and send it to elements of the distribution channel module 216located in the user interface module 32, e.g., the user's video terminaldevice. This marketing content can be appropriate for the TAM associatedwith the user interface module 34 as determined by addressabilityinformation associated with the user interface module 32. The elementsof the distribution channel module 216 located in the service provider'sinfrastructure also can send control data to the elements of thedistribution channel module 216 located in the user interface module 32that can specify under what conditions the marketing content can be sentto the TAM. This control information can specify marketing informationprocessing module-like policy information about the applicability ofdifferent marketing content to different potential opportunities thatcan arise on the user interface module 32. Method 600 then can proceedto block 630.

In block 630, the elements of the distribution channel module 216located in the user interface module 32 can store the marketing contentin a local cache. Storing the marketing content can prepare the elementsof the distribution channel module 216 located in the user interfacemodule 32 to begin operation in an opportunistic mode. Method 600 thencan proceed to block 640.

In block 640, the TAM can begin interacting with the user interfacemodule 32 to receive services, e.g., begin a video-on-demand session,view broadcast television, etc. Method 600 then can proceed to block650.

In block 650, the elements of the distribution channel module 216located in the user interface module 32 can monitor the service, e.g., avideo stream being rendered, and detect opportunities to insertmarketing content therein. For example, the elements of the distributionchannel module 216 located in the user interface module 32 can be ableto detect cue tones or other signals embedded in a video streamoriginating from the other services module 52. Method 600 then canproceed to block 660.

In block 660, the elements of the distribution channel module 216located in the user interface module 32 can detect an advertisementinsertion opportunity, evaluate the opportunity and retrieve appropriatemarketing content from the local cache. The evaluation of theadvertisement insertion opportunity can be based on locally-cachedpolicy information. Method 600 then can proceed to block 670.

In block 670, the marketing content can be inserted into the contentbeing consumed by the TAM, e.g., spliced into the video stream and sentto the TAM.

Another type of video service advertisement insertion, referred to asvideo-on-demand (VOD) advertisement insertion can apply to VOD servicesand can function in an opportunistic manner. VOD advertisement insertioncan involve splicing targeted marketing content into the video stream,at an advertisement insertion opportunity, as the video stream is sentto the TAM during a VOD service. VOD advertisement insertion can be anopportunistic distribution channel, in that marketing content can onlybe sent to the TAM when the TAM interacts with the VOD service to orderand playback video content, e.g., a movie. When the TAM interacts withthe VOD service to order and playback video content, targeted marketingcontent, e.g., advertisements, can be spliced into the video contentbeing sent to the TAM.

The addressability information used by a VOD advertisement insertiondistribution channel can vary. For example, the source IP address andtimestamp associated with the VOD session can be used as a key toidentify/address the underlying TAM. Other forms of TAM identifyinginformation also can be used, including, but not limited to, a deviceID, a unique service-level user ID, etc. The techniques used by the VODadvertisement insertion distribution channel to identify the TAM bylinking provided keying information with other relational informationcontained in various service provider resources, e.g., the networkattachment module 48, user account module 44, other services module 52,etc. can be similar to those previously described for the web-basedadvertisement insertion distribution channel.

Referring back to Method 500, for VOD advertisement insertion, theinteraction between the PAM and the IP-based service in block 510 can bethe PAM interacting with the other services module 52 to browse, selectand initiate a VOD session, e.g., by using RTSP. This activity cantrigger the detection, in block 520, of at least one marketing contentinsertion opportunity associated with the VOD media that is to be sentto the PAM. Method 500 then can proceed as previously described to block550, where the distribution channel module 216 can splice the marketingcontent into the VOD media content stream before sending the mediacontent stream to the TAM. The splicing function used to merge themarketing content with the VOD media content can involve cue tones, orother signals, embedded in VOD media content to detect insertion pointsand is well known in the art. Method 500 then can proceed as previouslydescribed to block 560.

VOD advertisement insertion can use different strategies for signalingand determining the marketing content associated with a VOD session. Forexample, a single insertion opportunity can be detected and indicatedduring the initial VOD session negotiation and the distribution channelmodule 216 can send multiple advertisements for insertion for theduration of the session. Opportunity indications also can be signaled asthey arise in the stream.

VOD advertisement insertion techniques also can be applied to otherforms of media on demand, such as audio media, e.g., music-on-demand.

Returning to FIG. 4, after the marketing content has been sent to atleast one TAM by the distribution channel module 216, Method 240 thencan proceed to block 290.

In block 290, the performance analysis module 218 can collect andanalyze feedback relating to the performance of at least one marketingcampaign. This analysis can include generation of information, e.g., aperformance report, that can be delivered to the marketing campaignsponsor through the marketing information management module 212. Theresults of the analysis also can be delivered to the marketinginformation management module 212 for use in adjusting the marketingcampaign definition in order to improve performance. Method 240 then canproceed to block 250 for redefinition of the marketing campaign.

Referring to FIG. 9, a schematic diagram of a service provider-basedtargeted marketing services system, according to an exemplaryembodiment, is illustrated. FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a serviceprovider-based TMS system and contains the technology infrastructurethat can be used by the service provider 40 to leverage the domain nameresolution module 50 and the network attachment module 48 as informationsources to gain insight into the user's Internet browsing activities,obtain addressability information and use that information to sendanonymously targeted marketing content to the user 30 via a VODadvertisement insertion distribution channel. A service provider-basedTMS system can include other technology infrastructure used to leverageother information sources based on other activities and used to delivermarketing content to the user 30 via other distribution channels. System700 can comprise a user 30, a user interface module 32, a serviceprovider 40 and an external service module 70.

The user 30 and the user interface module 32 can be as described forSystem 20. The user 30 can be an individual or group that uses IP-basedservices provided by and through the service provider 40. The userinterface module 32 can provide a means for the user 30 to couple atleast one input and/or output device to the service provider'sinfrastructure via an IP-enabled communications link and to interactwith IP-based services via the coupled device(s).

The service provider 40 can comprise an IP packet transport module 42, auser account module 44, a service attachment module 46, a networkattachment module 48, a domain name resolution module 50, an otherservices module 52, an information source module 210, a marketinginformation management module 212, a marketing information processingmodule 214, a distribution channel module 216 and a performance analysismodule 218. The IP packet transport module 42, user account module 44,service attachment module 46, network attachment module 48, domain nameresolution module 50, and other services module 52 can be as describedfor System 20. The IP packet transport module 42 can route and forwardIP packets to and from the user interface module 32. The user accountmodule 44 can manage the information related to a user's account withthe service provider 40 and associated service provisioning information.The service attachment module 46 can dynamically exchange serviceprovisioning and configuration information with the user interfacemodule 32. The network attachment module 48 can coordinate the dynamicprovisioning and configuration associated with providing the user 30with IP-transport services. The domain name resolution module 50 canprovide domain name resolution services via the DNS. The other servicesmodule 52 can manage the delivery of other services provided by theservice provider 40.

In addition, the domain name resolution module 50 can include arouter/switch 702, a DNS server 704, a DNS request logger 706 and a DNSfilter 708. The router/switch 702 can mirror network traffic destinedfor the DNS server 704 on a second link. A variety of well-knownmirroring techniques can be used to accomplish this task. The networktraffic carried across the second link can include all DNS requests sentto the DNS server 704. The DNS request logger 706 can receive themirrored network traffic, identify desired DNS requests and extractrelevant information from those DNS requests.

The relevant information can include, but is not limited to, the sourceIP address of the request, the time the request was received, the typeof request, e.g., domain name resolution, the domain name to beresolved, etc., and constitutes RI-mytes. The DNS filter 708 can receivethe RI-mytes from the DNS request logger 706 and filter them. ThoseRI-mytes that match at least one target pattern can be retained, whilethose RI-mytes that do not match at least one target pattern can bediscarded. A large percentage of RI-mytes can be discarded by the DNSfilter 708. The DNS filter 708 also can tag retained RI-mytes withadditional campaign information, e.g., a marketing campaign ID, or otheruse indicator, that can be used by the marketing information processingmodule 214 to establish processing context and determine properhandling. Information contained in the RI-mytes retained by the DNSfilter 708 can include, but is not limited to, an indicator of the typeof RI-myte, e.g., a DNS request-based myte, the source IP address of theDNS request, the domain name requested, the time of the request, a listof at least one marketing campaign or other use indicators to which theRI-myte applies, etc.

The management and configuration of the filters applied by the DNSfilter 708, as well as the marketing campaign ID or other use indicatorused by the DNS filter 708 to tag RI-mytes, can be provided by themarketing information management module 212.

The other services module 52 can include a video services module 720.The video services module 720 can manage delivery of IP-based videoservices to the user interface module 32. The video services module 720can include a VOD content database 722, a VOD advertisement database724, a VOD distribution channel module 726 and a VOD server 728. The VODcontent database 722 can contain video content available for retrievalby the user 30, e.g., movies, recorded television shows, video clips,etc. The VOD advertisement database 724 can contain marketing contentavailable for insertion into video content, e.g., advertisements. TheVOD distribution channel module 726 can receive, from the VOD server728, information about opportunities to send marketing content to theuser 30. The VOD distribution channel module 726 can query the audiencedatabase 732 to determine what marketing content, if any, to match tothe opportunities to send marketing content to the user 30 and canreceive a response to that query. The VOD distribution channel module726 can retrieve the selected marketing content from the VOD advertisingdatabase 424 and send the selected marketing content to the VOD server728. The VOD server 728 can receive the selected marketing content fromthe VOD distribution channel module 726 and retrieve from the VODcontent database 722 the video content requested by the user 30. The VODserver 728 can splice the selected marketing content into the videocontent requested by the user 30 and send the combined content to theuser interface module 32. The VOD server 728 also can inform the VODdistribution channel module 726, which can inform the audience selectionmodule 738 and the performance analysis module 218, that the marketingcontent has been sent to the user 30.

The external service module 70 can include a host 742. The host 742 canstore resources related to at least one URL. The user 30 can employ theuser interface module 32 to retrieve the resources stored on the host742.

The information source module 210, marketing information managementmodule 212, marketing information processing module 214, distributionchannel module 216 and performance analysis module 218 can be asdescribed for System 200. The information source module 210 can collectinformation and forward that information to the marketing informationprocessing module 214. The marketing information management module 212can manage the configuration of and control the information associatedwith at least one marketing campaign being conducted by a TMS. Themarketing information processing module 214 can combine individual unitsof receptiveness information, addressability information and AMI toimprove the quality of AMI and generate new AMI. The distributionchannel module 216 can send marketing content once the marketinginformation processing module 214 combines AMI with marketing contentfrom the marketing information management module 212. The performanceanalysis module 218 can receive information from the marketinginformation management module 212 and the distribution channel module216 to measure the effectiveness of at least one marketing campaign. Theperformance analysis module 218 also can send the effectivenessmeasurement to the marketing information management module 212.

As previously described, the information source module 210 can includeelements of the user account module 44, the service attachment module46, the network attachment module 48 and the domain name resolutionmodule 50 as depicted by the overlap between the information sourcemodule 210 and those modules. The information source module 210 caninclude the router/switch 702, the DNS request logger 706 and the DNSfilter 708 in the domain name resolution module 50.

The marketing information processing module 214 can include an audiencedatabase 732, an IP address-based geographic filter 734, an IP accesssession resolver 736 and an audience selection module 738. The audiencedatabase 732 can store records relating to target audiences and themembers of the target audiences. The IP address-based geographic filter734 can receive RI-mytes from the DNS filter 708 and compare the sourceIP address contained therein with at least one IP address pattern thatcan be specific to at least one marketing campaign. Those RI-mytes thatmatch at least one IP address pattern can be retained, while thoseRI-mytes that do not match at least one IP address pattern can bediscarded. The management and configuration of the filters applied bythe IP address-based geographic filter 734 can be provided by themarketing information management module 212. The IP address-basedgeographic filter 734 can send retained RI-mytes to the IP accesssession resolver 736.

The IP access session resolver 736 can associate each RI-myte with anindividual user's IP access session. For each RI-myte received, the IPaccess session resolver 736 can query the network attachment module 48to lookup the associated IP access session for the RI-myte. Each querycan contain various information including, but not limited to, thesource IP address, a timestamp, etc. The network attachment module 48can process the request and return information that includes, but is notlimited to, a unique IP access session ID that is uniquely associatedwith the user 30, the IP access session IP address, the IP accesssession start time, unique access circuit information associated withthe IP access session, a unique user ID associated with the IP accesssession, etc. The IP access session resolver 736 can associate theinformation received from the network attachment module 48 with theRI-myte and send the enhanced RI-myte to the audience selection module738.

The audience selection module 738 can receive the RI-myte from the IPaccess session resolver 736 and evaluate it against any other contextualinformation that the audience selection module 738 can be maintainingfor the at least one marketing campaign and IP access session associatedwith the RI-myte in order to make a decision about whether to includethe associated PAM, as identified by the IP access session, in thetarget audience of the at least one marketing campaign. The audienceselection module 738 can use the algorithms previously described forthis purpose. If the audience selection module 738 decides to add thePAM associated with the RI-myte to at least one target audience, theaudience selection module 738 can record an entry in the audiencedatabase 732. The information in the audience database record caninclude, but is not limited to, the IP access session IP address, the IPaccess session start time, the IP access session ID, the IP accesssession user ID, etc. The audience selection module 738 also can removerecords from the audience database 732 based on incoming information orother processing.

The audience selection module 738 also can interact with the networkattachment module 48 to get information about changes in the IP accesssession state. For example, the network attachment module 48 can sendnotification messages to the audience selection module 738 when theuser's IP access session ends. Upon receiving such notification, theaudience selection module 738 can remove entries associated with that IPaccess session from the audience database 732 because System 700 can nolonger reach the PAM through the IP access session if System 700 usesthe IP access session ID as the basis for defining the PAM.

Rather than remove the entries associated with that IP access sessionfrom the audience database 732, the audience selection module 738 canmark the PAM as not reachable in the audience database 732. If System700 uses a user ID as the basis for defining a PAM, the user 30 andassociated information can remain valid, even though the current IPaccess session has ended. Accordingly, it can be preferable to retainthe information associated with the PAM and mark the information ascurrently not available. When the user 30 reconnects with a new IPaccess session, the PAM state can be changed to available. This approachallows audience membership to span IP access sessions.

Referring to FIG. 10, a flowchart of a method for providing serviceprovider-based targeted marketing services, according to an exemplaryembodiment, is illustrated. FIG. 10 illustrates one example of a methodfor sending service provider-based TMS and contains the steps that canbe used by the service provider 40 to leverage the domain nameresolution module 50 and the network attachment module 48 as informationsources to gain insight into the user's Internet browsing activities,obtain addressability information and use that information to sendanonymously targeted marketing content to the user 30 via a VODadvertisement insertion distribution channel. A method for sendingservice provider-based TMS can include other steps used to leverageother information sources based on other activities and used to sendmarketing content to the user 30 via other distribution channels.

In block 802, the marketing information management module 212 can sendinformation associated with at least one marketing campaign to the DNSfilter 708 and the IP address-based geographic filter 734 to manage theinformation retained and discarded by those filters. The informationsent by the marketing information management module 212 can include, butis not limited to, at least one domain name target pattern, at least oneIP address pattern, a marketing campaign ID, or other use indicator,that can be used by the marketing information processing module 212 toestablish processing context and determine proper handling, etc. Theinformation sent by the marketing information management module 212 canbe used in blocks 822, 826 and 830.

In block 1100, the user 30 can interact with the service provider 40 tosign-up for at least one service and establish a user account. This stepcan proceed as described for Method 100. For example, the user 30 canarrange for Internet access service and VOD service from the serviceprovider 40. The user 30 and/or the service provider 40 can set up andconfigure equipment for delivery of the service, e.g., a PC, homerouter, home network, set-top box, etc. Method 800 then can proceed toblock 120.

In block 120, the user 30 can establish a connection to the serviceprovider's infrastructure via an IP-enabled communications link. Thisstep can proceed as described for Method 100. For example, the user'shome router can use DHCP to interact with the service provider's edgerouter and DHCP server to request and receive an IP address along withother host configuration information. This information, in turn, can beused by the user's home router to dynamically configure other IP devicesin the home, support NAT services, etc. During this step, the user's IPaccess session can start, and information about the IP access sessioncan be maintained in the network attachment module 48. The informationmaintained can include, but is not limited to, the IP address assignedto the user's home router, the access information identifying the user30, the time that the IP access session began, the user's ID, etc.Method 800 then can proceed to block 130.

In block 130, the user 30 can establish use of IP transport services tocommunicate with other IP-enabled devices reachable through the serviceprovider's infrastructure. This step can proceed as described for Method100. Method 800 then can proceed to block 140.

In block 140, the user 30 can establish use of domain name resolutionservices to access other services. This step can proceed as describedfor Method 100. For example the user 30 can establish use of domain nameresolution services to access websites on the Internet and to accessvideo content from the VOD server 728. Method 800 then can proceed toblock 150.

In block 150, the user 30 can use application-level services, such asweb-browsing, e-mail, file-transfer, voice services, video services,etc. This step can proceed as described for Method 100. For example, theuser 30 can begin browsing the Internet, visiting various websites. Theuser 30 can enter a URL into a web browser running on a PC, use a mouseto click a link on a website, etc. The URL can be for resources storedon the host 742. The user subsequently can use a set-top box to browseand select a VOD title for viewing. The selection of the VOD title canoccur close or distant in time to the web browsing during the same IPaccess session. In a home networking environment, the web browsing andthe VOD title selection can be associated with the same IP accesssession and, hence, the same PAM. As the IP packets from the device usedfor web browsing, e.g., a PC, and the device used for VOD titleselection and viewing, e.g., a set-top box, traverse the user's homenetwork, the NAT function embedded in the home router can convert thesource IP addresses of the IP packets to the IP address assigned by thenetwork attachment module 48 at the start of the IP access session.Method 800 then can proceed to block 806 and block 846.

In block 806, the user interface module 32 can issue a DNS request tothe service provider 40. The IP packet transport module 42 can routethis DNS request to the domain name resolution module 50. For example,the web browser running on the user's PC can request that the serviceprovider 40 use the DNS to resolve the domain name of the host 742 toits associated IP address. Method 800 then can proceed to block 810.

In block 810, the router/switch 702 can mirror the DNS request, routingthe DNS request to the DNS server 704 and a copy of the DNS request tothe DNS request logger 706. For example, the information associated withthe DNS request for the host 742 can be sent to the DNS server 704 andthe DNS request logger 706. Method 800 then can proceed to block 814 andblock 818.

In block 814, the DNS server 704 can process the DNS request and sendthe IP address associated with the domain name to the user interfacemodule 32 through the router/switch 702 and the IP packet transportmodule 42. The DNS request can be sent in a manner consistent with thestandard DNS protocols. For example, the IP address associated with thehost 742 can be sent to the web browser running on the user's PC. Method800 then can proceed to block 816.

In block 816, the user interface module 32, through the IP packettransport module 42, can use the IP address associated with the domainname to send information to and receive information from the externalservice module 70 located at that IP address. For example, the user's PCcan display a website stored on the host 742 located at the IP address.

In block 818, the DNS logger can receive the mirrored domain nameresolution request, identify whether the DNS requests is desired and, ifso, extract relevant information from the DNS request. The relevantinformation can include, but is not limited to, the source IP address ofthe request, a timestamp of the time the request was received, the typeof request, e.g., domain name resolution, the domain name to beresolved, etc. The collection of information can constitute an RI-myte.For example, the DNS logger can identify the DNS request to resolve thedomain name of the host 742 to its associated IP address as desirableand extract the IP address of the user interface module 32, the time therequest was received, that the request was a DNS request, the domainname of the host 742, etc. Method 800 then can proceed to block 822.

In block 822, the information source module 210 can perform an initialfiltering operation using an element of the domain name resolutionmodule 50, the DNS filter 708, to discard RI-mytes that are irrelevantto Method 800. The DNS filter 708 can filter the RI-myte based on domainname pattern matching, using the domain name patterns sent by themarketing information management module 212 in block 802. If the RI-mytefails to match at least one domain name pattern, Method 800 can proceedto block 824, where Method 800 can end. If the RI-myte matches at leastone domain name pattern, Method 800 can proceed to block 826.

In block 826, the DNS filter 708 can tag the RI-myte with at least onemarketing campaign ID or other use indicator sent by the marketinginformation management module 212 in block 802. Thus, the informationincluded in the RI-myte being sent for further processing by the DNSfilter 708 can include, but is not limited to, the source IP address ofthe request, the timestamp of the time that the request was received,the type of request, e.g., domain name resolution, the domain name to beresolved, at least one marketing campaign ID or other use indicator towhich the RI-myte applies, etc. Method 800 then can proceed to block830.

In block 830, the IP address-based geographic filter 734 can filter theRI-myte based on IP address pattern matching, using the IP addresspatterns sent by the marketing information management module 212 inblock 802. The IP address patterns against which the RI-myte's source IPaddress is compared can be marketing campaign specific. For example, theIP address-based geographic filter 734 can check an incoming RI-myteagainst at least one pattern associated with any of the marketingcampaigns to which the RI-myte was associated by the DNS filter 708. Inthis way, the IP address-based geographic filter 734 can be applied in acampaign specific manner. If the RI-myte fails to match at least one IPaddress pattern, Method 800 can proceed to block 832, where Method 800can end. If the RI-myte matches at least one domain name pattern, Method800 can proceed to block 834.

In block 834, the IP access session resolver 736 can associate theRI-myte with the user's IP access session. The IP access sessionresolver 736 can query the network attachment module 48 to lookup theassociated IP access session for the RI-myte. The query can containvarious information available in the RI-myte, including, but not limitedto, the source IP address, a timestamp, etc. The network attachmentmodule 48 can process the request and return information that includes,but is not limited to, a unique IP access session ID that is uniquelyassociated with the user 30, the IP access session IP address, the IPaccess session start time, unique access circuit information associatedwith the IP access session, a unique user ID associated with the IPaccess session, etc. The IP access session resolver 736 can associatethe information received from the network attachment module 48 with theRI-myte and send the enhanced RI-myte to the audience selection module738. At this point, the RI-myte can have been filtered for relevance toat least one marketing campaign, associated with at least one marketingcampaign and associated with information from the IP access session thatgenerated the RI-myte. Method 800 then can proceed to block 838.

In block 838, the audience selection module 738 can evaluate the RI-myteagainst any other contextual information that the audience selectionmodule 738 can be maintaining for the at least one marketing campaignand IP access session associated with the RI-myte in order to make adecision about whether to include the associated PAM's IP access sessionin the target audience of at least one marketing campaign. The audienceselection module 738 can use the algorithms previously described forthis purpose. If the audience selection module 738 does not include theassociated IP access session in the target audience of at least onemarketing campaign, Method 800 can proceed to block 840, where Method800 can end. If the audience selection module 738 includes theassociated IP access session in the target audience of at least onemarketing campaign, Method 800 can proceed to block 842.

In block 842, the audience selection module 738 can record an entry inthe audience database 732, which can manage the information. Theinformation recorded in the audience database 732 entry can include, butis not limited to, the IP access session IP address, the IP accesssession start time, the IP access session ID, the IP access session userID, the marketing campaign ID, etc., contained in the RI-myte.

In block 846, the VOD server 728 can receive the user's request for theVOD title and recognize an opportunity to send marketing content to theuser 30. The VOD server 728 can relay this recognition to the VODdistribution channel module 726. Method 800 then can proceed to block850.

In block 850, the VOD distribution channel module 726 can query theaudience database 732 to determine what marketing campaign, if any, tomatch to the opportunity to send marketing content to the user 30. Asingle query can be used for the entire VOD session, e.g., the entiremovie, or separate queries can be used for each marketing contentinsertion opportunity. The information contained in each query to theaudience database 732 can include, but is not limited to, the IP addressof the VOD service user, a timestamp of the current time, an indicationof the type of marketing content delivery opportunity available, e.g.,VOD advertisement insertion, other context specific information, e.g.,type of movie, etc. Method 800 then can proceed to block 854.

In block 854, the audience database 732 can evaluate each query todetermine if the PAM identified by the IP address of the VOD serviceuser and the timestamp is a TAM for at least one marketing campaign andwhat marketing campaign is appropriate for this opportunity. Theaudience database 732 can send a reply back to the VOD distributionchannel module 726. Method 800 then can proceed to block 858.

In block 858, the VOD distribution channel module 726 can use themarketing campaign identified by the audience database 732 to retrievemarketing content associated with that marketing campaign, e.g., atleast one advertisement, from the VOD advertisement database 724 anddeliver the marketing content to the VOD server 728. The VODdistribution channel module 726 also can send the VOD server 728information about what marketing content to retrieve so that, at theappropriate time, the VOD server 728 can retrieve the marketing contentfrom the VOD advertisement database 724. Method 800 then can proceed toblock 862.

In block 862, the VOD server 728 can retrieve the video content selectedfor retrieval by the user 30, e.g., the VOD title, from the VOD contentdatabase 722 and send it to the user at the appropriate times, e.g.,based on cue tones or other indications, as is well known in the art.The VOD server 728 can splice the selected marketing content into thevideo content selected for retrieval by the user 30 during the processof sending the selected video content. Thus, the marketing content canbe sent to the user 30. Method 800 then can proceed to block 866.

In block 866, the VOD server 728 can inform the VOD distribution channelmodule 726, which can inform the audience selection module 738 and theperformance analysis module 218, that the marketing content has beensent to the user 30. The audience selection module 738 can use thisinformation to inform subsequent target audience membership decisions.The performance analysis module 218 can use this information to measurethe effectiveness of the marketing campaign for which the marketingcontent was sent. Method 800 then can proceed to block 870.

In block 870, the performance analysis module 218 then can send theeffectiveness measurement to the marketing information management module212. The marketing information management module 212 can use theeffectiveness measurement to modify the marketing campaign for whicheffectiveness was measured. For example, the marketing informationmanagement module 212 can adjust the filter information sent to the DNSfilter 708 and/or the IP address-based geographic filter 734 to changethe number and/or types of RI-mytes retained by those filters.

1. A method comprising: receiving, from an internet protocol(IP)-enabled device, a request to resolve a domain name to an associatedhost computer IP address; and identifying user receptiveness informationbased on the domain name received by a domain name resolution module orthe associated host computer IP address identified by the domain nameresolution module.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the userreceptiveness information further comprises filtering the request toresolve the domain name.
 3. The method of claim 1 further comprisingassociating the request to resolve the domain name with a user.
 4. Themethod of claim 3 wherein associating the request to resolve the domainname with the user comprises associating the request to resolve thedomain name with an identifier associated with the user selected fromthe group consisting of user identifier (ID), account ID,service-specific user ID, IP access session ID, device ID, IP addressand timestamp, and information that uniquely identifies the user'saccess connection.
 5. The method of claim 3 further comprisingassociating the user with addressability information.
 6. The method ofclaim 5 wherein associating the user with addressability informationdoes not involve the association of personally identifiable information.7. The method of claim 5 further comprising associating the user with atarget audience to which marketing content can be sent.
 8. The method ofclaim 5 further comprising identifying, based on the receptivenessinformation, marketing content for sending to the user.
 9. The method ofclaim 8 further comprising sending, based on the addressabilityinformation, marketing content to the user through at least onedistribution channel.
 10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:combining the receptiveness information based on the domain name or theassociated host computer IP address with other receptiveness informationpreviously associated with the user to increase the predictive abilityof the receptiveness information associated with the user.
 11. Themethod of claim 10 further comprising associating the user withaddressability information.
 12. The method of claim 11 furthercomprising identifying, based on the receptiveness information,marketing content for sending to the user.
 13. The method of claim 12further comprising: sending, based on the addressability information,marketing content associated with at least one marketing campaign to theuser through at least one distribution channel; and measuring theperformance of the at least one marketing campaign.
 14. A systemcomprising: a domain name resolution module configured to receive, fromat least one IP-enabled device being used by at least one user, at leastone request to resolve at least one domain name to at least oneassociated host computer IP address; an information source moduleconfigured to collect and maintain addressability information associatedwith the at least one user; and a marketing information processingmodule configured to identify user receptiveness information based onthe at least one domain name or the at least one associated hostcomputer IP address, associate the receptiveness information with the atleast one user, identify marketing content from at least one marketingcampaign to send to the at least one user on the basis of the identifiedreceptiveness information and associate the at least one user withaddressability information maintained in the information source module.15. The system of claim 14 further comprising a distribution channelmodule configured to send the identified marketing content to the userthrough at least one marketing distribution channel.
 16. The system ofclaim 15 further comprising a marketing information management moduleconfigured to send information to the marketing information processingmodule for the purpose of controlling the marketing content for sendingto the at least one user.
 17. The system of claim 16 further comprisinga performance analysis module configured to collect data about andanalyze the performance of the at least one marketing campaign.
 18. Thesystem of claim 14 further comprising a database for storing theassociation between the receptiveness information and the at least oneuser.
 19. The system of claim 18 wherein the marketing informationprocessing module is further configured to combine new receptivenessinformation for the at least one user with the receptiveness informationfor the at least one user stored in the database and replace thereceptiveness information for the at least one user stored in thedatabase with the combined receptiveness information for the at leastone user.
 20. The system of claim 19 further comprising: a distributionchannel module configured to send the identified marketing content tothe at least one user through at least one marketing distributionchannel; a marketing information management module configured to sendinformation to the marketing information processing module for thepurpose of controlling the marketing content for sending to the at leastone user; and a performance analysis module configured to collect dataabout and analyze the performance of the at least one marketingcampaign.